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<title>Much Ado About Nothing</title>

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<section id="preamble">

<h1>Much Ado about Nothing</h1>

<section id="dramatis-personae"><h2>Dramatis Personae</h2>

<ol class="persona-group">
  <li>DON PEDRO, prince of Arragon.</li>
  <li>DON JOHN, his bastard brother.</li>
  <li>CLAUDIO, a young lord of Florence.</li>
  <li>BENEDICK, a young lord of Padua.</li>
  <li>LEONATO, governor of Messina.</li>
  <li>ANTONIO, his brother.</li>
  <li>BALTHASAR, attendant on Don Pedro.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="persona-group" data-description="followers of Don John.">
  <li>CONRADE</li>
  <li>BORACHIO</li>
</ol>

<ol class="persona-group">
  <li>FRIAR FRANCIS</li>
  <li>DOGBERRY, a constable.</li>
  <li>VERGES, a headborough.</li>
  <li>A Sexton.</li>
  <li>A Boy.</li>
  <li>HERO, daughter to Leonato.</li>
  <li>BEATRICE, niece to Leonato.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="persona-group" data-description="gentlewomen attending on Hero.">
  <li>MARGARET</li>
  <li>URSULA</li>
</ol>

<ol class="persona-group">
  <li>Messengers, Watch, Attendants, &c. </li>
</ol>

</section>

<div id="scene-description">SCENE  Messina.</div>

</section>

<section class="act">

<h2>ACT I</h2>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE I.  Before LEONATO'S house.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter LEONATO, HERO, and BEATRICE, with a
Messenger</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>I learn in this letter that Don Peter of Arragon</li>
  <li>comes this night to Messina.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Messenger</li>
  <li>He is very near by this: he was not three leagues off</li>
  <li>when I left him.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li class="number">How many gentlemen have you lost in this action?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Messenger</li>
  <li>But few of any sort, and none of name.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>A victory is twice itself when the achiever brings</li>
  <li>home full numbers. I find here that Don Peter hath</li>
  <li>bestowed much honour on a young Florentine called Claudio.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Messenger</li>
  <li class="number">Much deserved on his part and equally remembered by</li>
  <li>Don Pedro: he hath borne himself beyond the</li>
  <li>promise of his age, doing, in the figure of a lamb,</li>
  <li>the feats of a lion: he hath indeed better</li>
  <li>bettered expectation than you must expect of me to</li>
  <li class="number">tell you how.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>He hath an uncle here in Messina will be very much</li>
  <li>glad of it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Messenger</li>
  <li>I have already delivered him letters, and there</li>
  <li>appears much joy in him; even so much that joy could</li>
  <li class="number">not show itself modest enough without a badge of</li>
  <li>bitterness.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>Did he break out into tears?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Messenger</li>
  <li>In great measure.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>A kind overflow of kindness: there are no faces</li>
  <li class="number">truer than those that are so washed. How much</li>
  <li>better is it to weep at joy than to joy at weeping!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>I pray you, is Signior Mountanto returned from the</li>
  <li>wars or no?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Messenger</li>
  <li>I know none of that name, lady: there was none such</li>
  <li class="number">in the army of any sort.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>What is he that you ask for, niece?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li>My cousin means Signior Benedick of Padua.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Messenger</li>
  <li>O, he's returned; and as pleasant as ever he was.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>He set up his bills here in Messina and challenged</li>
  <li class="number">Cupid at the flight; and my uncle's fool, reading</li>
  <li>the challenge, subscribed for Cupid, and challenged</li>
  <li>him at the bird-bolt. I pray you, how many hath he</li>
  <li>killed and eaten in these wars? But how many hath</li>
  <li>he killed? for indeed I promised to eat all of his killing.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li class="number">Faith, niece, you tax Signior Benedick too much;</li>
  <li>but he'll be meet with you, I doubt it not.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Messenger</li>
  <li>He hath done good service, lady, in these wars.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>You had musty victual, and he hath holp to eat it:</li>
  <li>he is a very valiant trencherman; he hath an</li>
  <li class="number">excellent stomach.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Messenger</li>
  <li>And a good soldier too, lady.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>And a good soldier to a lady: but what is he to a lord?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Messenger</li>
  <li>A lord to a lord, a man to a man; stuffed with all</li>
  <li>honourable virtues.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li class="number">It is so, indeed; he is no less than a stuffed man:</li>
  <li>but for the stuffing —  well, we are all mortal.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>You must not, sir, mistake my niece. There is a</li>
  <li>kind of merry war betwixt Signior Benedick and her:</li>
  <li>they never meet but there's a skirmish of wit</li>
  <li class="number">between them.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>Alas! he gets nothing by that. In our last</li>
  <li>conflict four of his five wits went halting off, and</li>
  <li>now is the whole man governed with one: so that if</li>
  <li>he have wit enough to keep himself warm, let him</li>
  <li class="number">bear it for a difference between himself and his</li>
  <li>horse; for it is all the wealth that he hath left,</li>
  <li>to be known a reasonable creature. Who is his</li>
  <li>companion now? He hath every month a new sworn brother.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Messenger</li>
  <li>Is't possible?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li class="number">Very easily possible: he wears his faith but as</li>
  <li>the fashion of his hat; it ever changes with the</li>
  <li>next block.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Messenger</li>
  <li>I see, lady, the gentleman is not in your books.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>No; an he were, I would burn my study. But, I pray</li>
  <li class="number">you, who is his companion? Is there no young</li>
  <li>squarer now that will make a voyage with him to the devil?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Messenger</li>
  <li>He is most in the company of the right noble Claudio.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>O Lord, he will hang upon him like a disease: he</li>
  <li>is sooner caught than the pestilence, and the taker</li>
  <li class="number">runs presently mad. God help the noble Claudio! if</li>
  <li>he have caught the Benedick, it will cost him a</li>
  <li>thousand pound ere a' be cured.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Messenger</li>
  <li>I will hold friends with you, lady.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>Do, good friend.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li class="number">You will never run mad, niece.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>No, not till a hot January.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Messenger</li>
  <li>Don Pedro is approached.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter DON PEDRO, DON JOHN, CLAUDIO, BENEDICK,
and BALTHASAR</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Good Signior Leonato, you are come to meet your</li>
  <li>trouble: the fashion of the world is to avoid</li>
  <li class="number">cost, and you encounter it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>Never came trouble to my house in the likeness of</li>
  <li>your grace: for trouble being gone, comfort should</li>
  <li>remain; but when you depart from me, sorrow abides</li>
  <li>and happiness takes his leave.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li class="number">You embrace your charge too willingly. I think this</li>
  <li>is your daughter.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>Her mother hath many times told me so.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Were you in doubt, sir, that you asked her?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>Signior Benedick, no; for then were you a child.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li class="number">You have it full, Benedick: we may guess by this</li>
  <li>what you are, being a man. Truly, the lady fathers</li>
  <li>herself. Be happy, lady; for you are like an</li>
  <li>honourable father.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>If Signior Leonato be her father, she would not</li>
  <li class="number">have his head on her shoulders for all Messina, as</li>
  <li>like him as she is.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>I wonder that you will still be talking, Signior</li>
  <li>Benedick: nobody marks you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>What, my dear Lady Disdain! are you yet living?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li class="number">Is it possible disdain should die while she hath</li>
  <li>such meet food to feed it as Signior Benedick?</li>
  <li>Courtesy itself must convert to disdain, if you come</li>
  <li>in her presence.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Then is courtesy a turncoat. But it is certain I</li>
  <li class="number">am loved of all ladies, only you excepted: and I</li>
  <li>would I could find in my heart that I had not a hard</li>
  <li>heart; for, truly, I love none.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>A dear happiness to women: they would else have</li>
  <li>been troubled with a pernicious suitor. I thank God</li>
  <li class="number">and my cold blood, I am of your humour for that: I</li>
  <li>had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man</li>
  <li>swear he loves me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>God keep your ladyship still in that mind! so some</li>
  <li>gentleman or other shall 'scape a predestinate</li>
  <li class="number">scratched face.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>Scratching could not make it worse, an 'twere such</li>
  <li>a face as yours were.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Well, you are a rare parrot-teacher.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>A bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li class="number">I would my horse had the speed of your tongue, and</li>
  <li>so good a continuer. But keep your way, i' God's</li>
  <li>name; I have done.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>You always end with a jade's trick: I know you of old.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>That is the sum of all, Leonato. Signior Claudio</li>
  <li class="number">and Signior Benedick, my dear friend Leonato hath</li>
  <li>invited you all. I tell him we shall stay here at</li>
  <li>the least a month; and he heartily prays some</li>
  <li>occasion may detain us longer. I dare swear he is no</li>
  <li>hypocrite, but prays from his heart.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li class="number">If you swear, my lord, you shall not be forsworn.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">To DON JOHN</li>
  <li>Let me bid you welcome, my lord: being reconciled to</li>
  <li>the prince your brother, I owe you all duty.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li>I thank you: I am not of many words, but I thank</li>
  <li>you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li class="number">Please it your grace lead on?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Your hand, Leonato; we will go together.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt all except BENEDICK and CLAUDIO</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Benedick, didst thou note the daughter of Signior Leonato?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>I noted her not; but I looked on her.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Is she not a modest young lady?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li class="number">Do you question me, as an honest man should do, for</li>
  <li>my simple true judgment; or would you have me speak</li>
  <li>after my custom, as being a professed tyrant to their sex?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>No; I pray thee speak in sober judgment.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Why, i' faith, methinks she's too low for a high</li>
  <li class="number">praise, too brown for a fair praise and too little</li>
  <li>for a great praise: only this commendation I can</li>
  <li>afford her, that were she other than she is, she</li>
  <li>were unhandsome; and being no other but as she is, I</li>
  <li>do not like her.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li class="number">Thou thinkest I am in sport: I pray thee tell me</li>
  <li>truly how thou likest her.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Would you buy her, that you inquire after her?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Can the world buy such a jewel?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Yea, and a case to put it into. But speak you this</li>
  <li class="number">with a sad brow? or do you play the flouting Jack,</li>
  <li>to tell us Cupid is a good hare-finder and Vulcan a</li>
  <li>rare carpenter? Come, in what key shall a man take</li>
  <li>you, to go in the song?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>In mine eye she is the sweetest lady that ever I</li>
  <li class="number">looked on.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>I can see yet without spectacles and I see no such</li>
  <li>matter: there's her cousin, an she were not</li>
  <li>possessed with a fury, exceeds her as much in beauty</li>
  <li>as the first of May doth the last of December. But I</li>
  <li class="number">hope you have no intent to turn husband, have you?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>I would scarce trust myself, though I had sworn the</li>
  <li>contrary, if Hero would be my wife.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Is't come to this? In faith, hath not the world</li>
  <li>one man but he will wear his cap with suspicion?</li>
  <li class="number">Shall I never see a bachelor of three-score again?</li>
  <li>Go to, i' faith; an thou wilt needs thrust thy neck</li>
  <li>into a yoke, wear the print of it and sigh away</li>
  <li>Sundays. Look Don Pedro is returned to seek you.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Re-enter DON PEDRO</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>What secret hath held you here, that you followed</li>
  <li class="number">not to Leonato's?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>I would your grace would constrain me to tell.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>I charge thee on thy allegiance.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>You hear, Count Claudio: I can be secret as a dumb</li>
  <li>man; I would have you think so; but, on my</li>
  <li class="number">allegiance, mark you this, on my allegiance. He is</li>
  <li>in love. With who? now that is your grace's part.</li>
  <li>Mark how short his answer is; — With Hero, Leonato's</li>
  <li>short daughter.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>If this were so, so were it uttered.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li class="number">Like the old tale, my lord: 'it is not so, nor</li>
  <li>'twas not so, but, indeed, God forbid it should be</li>
  <li>so.'</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>If my passion change not shortly, God forbid it</li>
  <li>should be otherwise.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li class="number">Amen, if you love her; for the lady is very well worthy.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>You speak this to fetch me in, my lord.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>By my troth, I speak my thought.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>And, in faith, my lord, I spoke mine.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>And, by my two faiths and troths, my lord, I spoke mine.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li class="number">That I love her, I feel.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>That she is worthy, I know.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>That I neither feel how she should be loved nor</li>
  <li>know how she should be worthy, is the opinion that</li>
  <li>fire cannot melt out of me: I will die in it at the stake.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li class="number">Thou wast ever an obstinate heretic in the despite</li>
  <li>of beauty.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>And never could maintain his part but in the force</li>
  <li>of his will.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>That a woman conceived me, I thank her; that she</li>
  <li class="number">brought me up, I likewise give her most humble</li>
  <li>thanks: but that I will have a recheat winded in my</li>
  <li>forehead, or hang my bugle in an invisible baldrick,</li>
  <li>all women shall pardon me. Because I will not do</li>
  <li>them the wrong to mistrust any, I will do myself the</li>
  <li class="number">right to trust none; and the fine is, for the which</li>
  <li>I may go the finer, I will live a bachelor.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>I shall see thee, ere I die, look pale with love.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>With anger, with sickness, or with hunger, my lord,</li>
  <li>not with love: prove that ever I lose more blood</li>
  <li class="number">with love than I will get again with drinking, pick</li>
  <li>out mine eyes with a ballad-maker's pen and hang me</li>
  <li>up at the door of a brothel-house for the sign of</li>
  <li>blind Cupid.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Well, if ever thou dost fall from this faith, thou</li>
  <li class="number">wilt prove a notable argument.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>If I do, hang me in a bottle like a cat and shoot</li>
  <li>at me; and he that hits me, let him be clapped on</li>
  <li>the shoulder, and called Adam.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Well, as time shall try: 'In time the savage bull</li>
  <li class="number">doth bear the yoke.'</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>The savage bull may; but if ever the sensible</li>
  <li>Benedick bear it, pluck off the bull's horns and set</li>
  <li>them in my forehead: and let me be vilely painted,</li>
  <li>and in such great letters as they write 'Here is</li>
  <li class="number">good horse to hire,' let them signify under my sign</li>
  <li>'Here you may see Benedick the married man.'</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>If this should ever happen, thou wouldst be horn-mad.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Nay, if Cupid have not spent all his quiver in</li>
  <li>Venice, thou wilt quake for this shortly.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li class="number">I look for an earthquake too, then.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Well, you temporize with the hours. In the</li>
  <li>meantime, good Signior Benedick, repair to</li>
  <li>Leonato's: commend me to him and tell him I will</li>
  <li>not fail him at supper; for indeed he hath made</li>
  <li class="number">great preparation.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>I have almost matter enough in me for such an</li>
  <li>embassage; and so I commit you — </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>To the tuition of God: From my house, if I had it —  </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>The sixth of July: Your loving friend, Benedick.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li class="number">Nay, mock not, mock not. The body of your</li>
  <li>discourse is sometime guarded with fragments, and</li>
  <li>the guards are but slightly basted on neither: ere</li>
  <li>you flout old ends any further, examine your</li>
  <li>conscience: and so I leave you.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li class="number">My liege, your highness now may do me good.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>My love is thine to teach: teach it but how,</li>
  <li>And thou shalt see how apt it is to learn</li>
  <li>Any hard lesson that may do thee good.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Hath Leonato any son, my lord?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li class="number">No child but Hero; she's his only heir.</li>
  <li>Dost thou affect her, Claudio?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>O, my lord,</li>
  <li>When you went onward on this ended action,</li>
  <li>I look'd upon her with a soldier's eye,</li>
  <li class="number">That liked, but had a rougher task in hand</li>
  <li>Than to drive liking to the name of love:</li>
  <li>But now I am return'd and that war-thoughts</li>
  <li>Have left their places vacant, in their rooms</li>
  <li>Come thronging soft and delicate desires,</li>
  <li class="number">All prompting me how fair young Hero is,</li>
  <li>Saying, I liked her ere I went to wars.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Thou wilt be like a lover presently</li>
  <li>And tire the hearer with a book of words.</li>
  <li>If thou dost love fair Hero, cherish it,</li>
  <li class="number">And I will break with her and with her father,</li>
  <li>And thou shalt have her. Was't not to this end</li>
  <li>That thou began'st to twist so fine a story?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>How sweetly you do minister to love,</li>
  <li>That know love's grief by his complexion!</li>
  <li class="number">But lest my liking might too sudden seem,</li>
  <li>I would have salved it with a longer treatise.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>What need the bridge much broader than the flood?</li>
  <li>The fairest grant is the necessity.</li>
  <li>Look, what will serve is fit: 'tis once, thou lovest,</li>
  <li class="number">And I will fit thee with the remedy.</li>
  <li>I know we shall have revelling to-night:</li>
  <li>I will assume thy part in some disguise</li>
  <li>And tell fair Hero I am Claudio,</li>
  <li>And in her bosom I'll unclasp my heart</li>
  <li class="number">And take her hearing prisoner with the force</li>
  <li>And strong encounter of my amorous tale:</li>
  <li>Then after to her father will I break;</li>
  <li>And the conclusion is, she shall be thine.</li>
  <li>In practise let us put it presently.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

</section>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE II.  A room in LEONATO's house.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter LEONATO and ANTONIO, meeting</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>How now, brother! Where is my cousin, your son?</li>
  <li>hath he provided this music?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTONIO</li>
  <li>He is very busy about it. But, brother, I can tell</li>
  <li>you strange news that you yet dreamt not of.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li class="number">Are they good?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTONIO</li>
  <li>As the event stamps them: but they have a good</li>
  <li>cover; they show well outward. The prince and Count</li>
  <li>Claudio, walking in a thick-pleached alley in mine</li>
  <li>orchard, were thus much overheard by a man of mine:</li>
  <li class="number">the prince discovered to Claudio that he loved my</li>
  <li>niece your daughter and meant to acknowledge it</li>
  <li>this night in a dance: and if he found her</li>
  <li>accordant, he meant to take the present time by the</li>
  <li>top and instantly break with you of it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li class="number">Hath the fellow any wit that told you this?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTONIO</li>
  <li>A good sharp fellow: I will send for him; and</li>
  <li>question him yourself.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>No, no; we will hold it as a dream till it appear</li>
  <li>itself: but I will acquaint my daughter withal,</li>
  <li class="number">that she may be the better prepared for an answer,</li>
  <li>if peradventure this be true. Go you and tell her of it.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Enter Attendants</li>
  <li>Cousins, you know what you have to do. O, I cry you</li>
  <li>mercy, friend; go you with me, and I will use your</li>
  <li>skill. Good cousin, have a care this busy time.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

</section>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE III.  The same.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter DON JOHN and CONRADE</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CONRADE</li>
  <li>What the good-year, my lord! why are you thus out</li>
  <li>of measure sad?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li>There is no measure in the occasion that breeds;</li>
  <li>therefore the sadness is without limit.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CONRADE</li>
  <li class="number">You should hear reason.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li>And when I have heard it, what blessing brings it?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CONRADE</li>
  <li>If not a present remedy, at least a patient</li>
  <li>sufferance.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li>I wonder that thou, being, as thou sayest thou art,</li>
  <li class="number">born under Saturn, goest about to apply a moral</li>
  <li>medicine to a mortifying mischief. I cannot hide</li>
  <li>what I am: I must be sad when I have cause and smile</li>
  <li>at no man's jests, eat when I have stomach and wait</li>
  <li>for no man's leisure, sleep when I am drowsy and</li>
  <li class="number">tend on no man's business, laugh when I am merry and</li>
  <li>claw no man in his humour.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CONRADE</li>
  <li>Yea, but you must not make the full show of this</li>
  <li>till you may do it without controlment. You have of</li>
  <li>late stood out against your brother, and he hath</li>
  <li class="number">ta'en you newly into his grace; where it is</li>
  <li>impossible you should take true root but by the</li>
  <li>fair weather that you make yourself: it is needful</li>
  <li>that you frame the season for your own harvest.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li>I had rather be a canker in a hedge than a rose in</li>
  <li class="number">his grace, and it better fits my blood to be</li>
  <li>disdained of all than to fashion a carriage to rob</li>
  <li>love from any: in this, though I cannot be said to</li>
  <li>be a flattering honest man, it must not be denied</li>
  <li>but I am a plain-dealing villain. I am trusted with</li>
  <li class="number">a muzzle and enfranchised with a clog; therefore I</li>
  <li>have decreed not to sing in my cage. If I had my</li>
  <li>mouth, I would bite; if I had my liberty, I would do</li>
  <li>my liking: in the meantime let me be that I am and</li>
  <li>seek not to alter me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CONRADE</li>
  <li class="number">Can you make no use of your discontent?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li>I make all use of it, for I use it only.</li>
  <li>Who comes here?</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Enter BORACHIO</li>
  <li>What news, Borachio?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BORACHIO</li>
  <li>I came yonder from a great supper: the prince your</li>
  <li class="number">brother is royally entertained by Leonato: and I</li>
  <li>can give you intelligence of an intended marriage.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li>Will it serve for any model to build mischief on?</li>
  <li>What is he for a fool that betroths himself to</li>
  <li>unquietness?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BORACHIO</li>
  <li class="number">Marry, it is your brother's right hand.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li>Who? the most exquisite Claudio?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BORACHIO</li>
  <li>Even he.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li>A proper squire! And who, and who? which way looks</li>
  <li>he?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BORACHIO</li>
  <li class="number">Marry, on Hero, the daughter and heir of Leonato.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li>A very forward March-chick! How came you to this?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BORACHIO</li>
  <li>Being entertained for a perfumer, as I was smoking a</li>
  <li>musty room, comes me the prince and Claudio, hand</li>
  <li>in hand in sad conference: I whipt me behind the</li>
  <li class="number">arras; and there heard it agreed upon that the</li>
  <li>prince should woo Hero for himself, and having</li>
  <li>obtained her, give her to Count Claudio.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li>Come, come, let us thither: this may prove food to</li>
  <li>my displeasure. That young start-up hath all the</li>
  <li class="number">glory of my overthrow: if I can cross him any way, I</li>
  <li>bless myself every way. You are both sure, and will assist me?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CONRADE</li>
  <li>To the death, my lord.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li>Let us to the great supper: their cheer is the</li>
  <li>greater that I am subdued. Would the cook were of</li>
  <li class="number">my mind! Shall we go prove what's to be done?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BORACHIO</li>
  <li>We'll wait upon your lordship.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

</section>

</section>

<section class="act">

<h2>ACT II</h2>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE I.  A hall in LEONATO'S house.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter LEONATO, ANTONIO, HERO, BEATRICE, and others</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>Was not Count John here at supper?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTONIO</li>
  <li>I saw him not.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>How tartly that gentleman looks! I never can see</li>
  <li>him but I am heart-burned an hour after.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li class="number">He is of a very melancholy disposition.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>He were an excellent man that were made just in the</li>
  <li>midway between him and Benedick: the one is too</li>
  <li>like an image and says nothing, and the other too</li>
  <li>like my lady's eldest son, evermore tattling.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li class="number">Then half Signior Benedick's tongue in Count John's</li>
  <li>mouth, and half Count John's melancholy in Signior</li>
  <li>Benedick's face —  </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>With a good leg and a good foot, uncle, and money</li>
  <li>enough in his purse, such a man would win any woman</li>
  <li class="number">in the world, if a' could get her good-will.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>By my troth, niece, thou wilt never get thee a</li>
  <li>husband, if thou be so shrewd of thy tongue.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTONIO</li>
  <li>In faith, she's too curst.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>Too curst is more than curst: I shall lessen God's</li>
  <li class="number">sending that way; for it is said, 'God sends a curst</li>
  <li>cow short horns;' but to a cow too curst he sends none.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>So, by being too curst, God will send you no horns.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>Just, if he send me no husband; for the which</li>
  <li>blessing I am at him upon my knees every morning and</li>
  <li class="number">evening. Lord, I could not endure a husband with a</li>
  <li>beard on his face: I had rather lie in the woollen.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>You may light on a husband that hath no beard.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>What should I do with him? dress him in my apparel</li>
  <li>and make him my waiting-gentlewoman? He that hath a</li>
  <li class="number">beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no</li>
  <li>beard is less than a man: and he that is more than</li>
  <li>a youth is not for me, and he that is less than a</li>
  <li>man, I am not for him: therefore, I will even take</li>
  <li>sixpence in earnest of the bear-ward, and lead his</li>
  <li class="number">apes into hell.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>Well, then, go you into hell?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>No, but to the gate; and there will the devil meet</li>
  <li>me, like an old cuckold, with horns on his head, and</li>
  <li>say 'Get you to heaven, Beatrice, get you to</li>
  <li class="number">heaven; here's no place for you maids:' so deliver</li>
  <li>I up my apes, and away to Saint Peter for the</li>
  <li>heavens; he shows me where the bachelors sit, and</li>
  <li>there live we as merry as the day is long.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTONIO</li>
  <li>To HERO  Well, niece, I trust you will be ruled</li>
  <li class="number">by your father.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>Yes, faith; it is my cousin's duty to make curtsy</li>
  <li>and say 'Father, as it please you.' But yet for all</li>
  <li>that, cousin, let him be a handsome fellow, or else</li>
  <li>make another curtsy and say 'Father, as it please</li>
  <li class="number">me.'</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>Well, niece, I hope to see you one day fitted with a husband.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>Not till God make men of some other metal than</li>
  <li>earth. Would it not grieve a woman to be</li>
  <li>overmastered with a pierce of valiant dust? to make</li>
  <li class="number">an account of her life to a clod of wayward marl?</li>
  <li>No, uncle, I'll none: Adam's sons are my brethren;</li>
  <li>and, truly, I hold it a sin to match in my kindred.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>Daughter, remember what I told you: if the prince</li>
  <li>do solicit you in that kind, you know your answer.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li class="number">The fault will be in the music, cousin, if you be</li>
  <li>not wooed in good time: if the prince be too</li>
  <li>important, tell him there is measure in every thing</li>
  <li>and so dance out the answer. For, hear me, Hero:</li>
  <li>wooing, wedding, and repenting, is as a Scotch jig,</li>
  <li class="number">a measure, and a cinque pace: the first suit is hot</li>
  <li>and hasty, like a Scotch jig, and full as</li>
  <li>fantastical; the wedding, mannerly-modest, as a</li>
  <li>measure, full of state and ancientry; and then comes</li>
  <li>repentance and, with his bad legs, falls into the</li>
  <li class="number">cinque pace faster and faster, till he sink into his grave.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>Cousin, you apprehend passing shrewdly.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>I have a good eye, uncle; I can see a church by daylight.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>The revellers are entering, brother: make good room.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">All put on their masks</div>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter DON PEDRO, CLAUDIO, BENEDICK, BALTHASAR,
DON JOHN, BORACHIO, MARGARET, URSULA and others, masked</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Lady, will you walk about with your friend?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li class="number">So you walk softly and look sweetly and say nothing,</li>
  <li>I am yours for the walk; and especially when I walk away.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>With me in your company?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li>I may say so, when I please.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>And when please you to say so?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li class="number">When I like your favour; for God defend the lute</li>
  <li>should be like the case!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>My visor is Philemon's roof; within the house is Jove.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li>Why, then, your visor should be thatched.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Speak low, if you speak love.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Drawing her aside</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BALTHASAR</li>
  <li class="number">Well, I would you did like me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARGARET</li>
  <li>So would not I, for your own sake; for I have many</li>
  <li>ill-qualities.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BALTHASAR</li>
  <li>Which is one?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARGARET</li>
  <li>I say my prayers aloud.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BALTHASAR</li>
  <li class="number">I love you the better: the hearers may cry, Amen.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARGARET</li>
  <li>God match me with a good dancer!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BALTHASAR</li>
  <li>Amen.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARGARET</li>
  <li>And God keep him out of my sight when the dance is</li>
  <li>done! Answer, clerk.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BALTHASAR</li>
  <li class="number">No more words: the clerk is answered.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">URSULA</li>
  <li>I know you well enough; you are Signior Antonio.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTONIO</li>
  <li>At a word, I am not.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">URSULA</li>
  <li>I know you by the waggling of your head.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTONIO</li>
  <li>To tell you true, I counterfeit him.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">URSULA</li>
  <li class="number">You could never do him so ill-well, unless you were</li>
  <li>the very man. Here's his dry hand up and down: you</li>
  <li>are he, you are he.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTONIO</li>
  <li>At a word, I am not.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">URSULA</li>
  <li>Come, come, do you think I do not know you by your</li>
  <li class="number">excellent wit? can virtue hide itself? Go to,</li>
  <li>mum, you are he: graces will appear, and there's an</li>
  <li>end.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>Will you not tell me who told you so?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>No, you shall pardon me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li class="number">Nor will you not tell me who you are?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Not now.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>That I was disdainful, and that I had my good wit</li>
  <li>out of the 'Hundred Merry Tales:' — well this was</li>
  <li>Signior Benedick that said so.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li class="number">What's he?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>I am sure you know him well enough.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Not I, believe me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>Did he never make you laugh?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>I pray you, what is he?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li class="number">Why, he is the prince's jester: a very dull fool;</li>
  <li>only his gift is in devising impossible slanders:</li>
  <li>none but libertines delight in him; and the</li>
  <li>commendation is not in his wit, but in his villany;</li>
  <li>for he both pleases men and angers them, and then</li>
  <li class="number">they laugh at him and beat him. I am sure he is in</li>
  <li>the fleet: I would he had boarded me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>When I know the gentleman, I'll tell him what you say.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>Do, do: he'll but break a comparison or two on me;</li>
  <li>which, peradventure not marked or not laughed at,</li>
  <li class="number">strikes him into melancholy; and then there's a</li>
  <li>partridge wing saved, for the fool will eat no</li>
  <li>supper that night.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Music</li>
  <li>We must follow the leaders.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>In every good thing.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li class="number">Nay, if they lead to any ill, I will leave them at</li>
  <li>the next turning.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Dance. Then exeunt all except DON JOHN, BORACHIO,
and CLAUDIO</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li>Sure my brother is amorous on Hero and hath</li>
  <li>withdrawn her father to break with him about it.</li>
  <li>The ladies follow her and but one visor remains.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BORACHIO</li>
  <li class="number">And that is Claudio: I know him by his bearing.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li>Are not you Signior Benedick?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>You know me well; I am he.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li>Signior, you are very near my brother in his love:</li>
  <li>he is enamoured on Hero; I pray you, dissuade him</li>
  <li class="number">from her: she is no equal for his birth: you may</li>
  <li>do the part of an honest man in it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>How know you he loves her?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li>I heard him swear his affection.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BORACHIO</li>
  <li>So did I too; and he swore he would marry her to-night.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li class="number">Come, let us to the banquet.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt DON JOHN and BORACHIO</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Thus answer I in the name of Benedick,</li>
  <li>But hear these ill news with the ears of Claudio.</li>
  <li>'Tis certain so; the prince wooes for himself.</li>
  <li>Friendship is constant in all other things</li>
  <li class="number">Save in the office and affairs of love:</li>
  <li>Therefore, all hearts in love use their own tongues;</li>
  <li>Let every eye negotiate for itself</li>
  <li>And trust no agent; for beauty is a witch</li>
  <li>Against whose charms faith melteth into blood.</li>
  <li class="number">This is an accident of hourly proof,</li>
  <li>Which I mistrusted not. Farewell, therefore, Hero!</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Re-enter BENEDICK</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Count Claudio?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Yea, the same.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Come, will you go with me?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li class="number">Whither?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Even to the next willow, about your own business,</li>
  <li>county. What fashion will you wear the garland of?</li>
  <li>about your neck, like an usurer's chain? or under</li>
  <li>your arm, like a lieutenant's scarf? You must wear</li>
  <li class="number">it one way, for the prince hath got your Hero.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>I wish him joy of her.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Why, that's spoken like an honest drovier: so they</li>
  <li>sell bullocks. But did you think the prince would</li>
  <li>have served you thus?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li class="number">I pray you, leave me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Ho! now you strike like the blind man: 'twas the</li>
  <li>boy that stole your meat, and you'll beat the post.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>If it will not be, I'll leave you.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Alas, poor hurt fowl! now will he creep into sedges.</li>
  <li class="number">But that my Lady Beatrice should know me, and not</li>
  <li>know me! The prince's fool! Ha? It may be I go</li>
  <li>under that title because I am merry. Yea, but so I</li>
  <li>am apt to do myself wrong; I am not so reputed: it</li>
  <li>is the base, though bitter, disposition of Beatrice</li>
  <li class="number">that puts the world into her person and so gives me</li>
  <li>out. Well, I'll be revenged as I may.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Re-enter DON PEDRO</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Now, signior, where's the count? did you see him?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Troth, my lord, I have played the part of Lady Fame.</li>
  <li>I found him here as melancholy as a lodge in a</li>
  <li class="number">warren: I told him, and I think I told him true,</li>
  <li>that your grace had got the good will of this young</li>
  <li>lady; and I offered him my company to a willow-tree,</li>
  <li>either to make him a garland, as being forsaken, or</li>
  <li>to bind him up a rod, as being worthy to be whipped.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li class="number">To be whipped! What's his fault?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>The flat transgression of a schoolboy, who, being</li>
  <li>overjoyed with finding a birds' nest, shows it his</li>
  <li>companion, and he steals it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Wilt thou make a trust a transgression? The</li>
  <li class="number">transgression is in the stealer.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Yet it had not been amiss the rod had been made,</li>
  <li>and the garland too; for the garland he might have</li>
  <li>worn himself, and the rod he might have bestowed on</li>
  <li>you, who, as I take it, have stolen his birds' nest.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li class="number">I will but teach them to sing, and restore them to</li>
  <li>the owner.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>If their singing answer your saying, by my faith,</li>
  <li>you say honestly.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>The Lady Beatrice hath a quarrel to you: the</li>
  <li class="number">gentleman that danced with her told her she is much</li>
  <li>wronged by you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>O, she misused me past the endurance of a block!</li>
  <li>an oak but with one green leaf on it would have</li>
  <li>answered her; my very visor began to assume life and</li>
  <li class="number">scold with her. She told me, not thinking I had been</li>
  <li>myself, that I was the prince's jester, that I was</li>
  <li>duller than a great thaw; huddling jest upon jest</li>
  <li>with such impossible conveyance upon me that I stood</li>
  <li>like a man at a mark, with a whole army shooting at</li>
  <li class="number">me. She speaks poniards, and every word stabs:</li>
  <li>if her breath were as terrible as her terminations,</li>
  <li>there were no living near her; she would infect to</li>
  <li>the north star. I would not marry her, though she</li>
  <li>were endowed with all that Adam bad left him before</li>
  <li class="number">he transgressed: she would have made Hercules have</li>
  <li>turned spit, yea, and have cleft his club to make</li>
  <li>the fire too. Come, talk not of her: you shall find</li>
  <li>her the infernal Ate in good apparel. I would to God</li>
  <li>some scholar would conjure her; for certainly, while</li>
  <li class="number">she is here, a man may live as quiet in hell as in a</li>
  <li>sanctuary; and people sin upon purpose, because they</li>
  <li>would go thither; so, indeed, all disquiet, horror</li>
  <li>and perturbation follows her.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Look, here she comes.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter CLAUDIO, BEATRICE, HERO, and LEONATO</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li class="number">Will your grace command me any service to the</li>
  <li>world's end? I will go on the slightest errand now</li>
  <li>to the Antipodes that you can devise to send me on;</li>
  <li>I will fetch you a tooth-picker now from the</li>
  <li>furthest inch of Asia, bring you the length of</li>
  <li class="number">Prester John's foot, fetch you a hair off the great</li>
  <li>Cham's beard, do you any embassage to the Pigmies,</li>
  <li>rather than hold three words' conference with this</li>
  <li>harpy. You have no employment for me?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>None, but to desire your good company.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li class="number">O God, sir, here's a dish I love not: I cannot</li>
  <li>endure my Lady Tongue.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Come, lady, come; you have lost the heart of</li>
  <li>Signior Benedick.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>Indeed, my lord, he lent it me awhile; and I gave</li>
  <li class="number">him use for it, a double heart for his single one:</li>
  <li>marry, once before he won it of me with false dice,</li>
  <li>therefore your grace may well say I have lost it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>You have put him down, lady, you have put him down.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>So I would not he should do me, my lord, lest I</li>
  <li class="number">should prove the mother of fools. I have brought</li>
  <li>Count Claudio, whom you sent me to seek.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Why, how now, count! wherefore are you sad?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Not sad, my lord.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>How then? sick?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li class="number">Neither, my lord.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>The count is neither sad, nor sick, nor merry, nor</li>
  <li>well; but civil count, civil as an orange, and</li>
  <li>something of that jealous complexion.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>I' faith, lady, I think your blazon to be true;</li>
  <li class="number">though, I'll be sworn, if he be so, his conceit is</li>
  <li>false. Here, Claudio, I have wooed in thy name, and</li>
  <li>fair Hero is won: I have broke with her father,</li>
  <li>and his good will obtained: name the day of</li>
  <li>marriage, and God give thee joy!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li class="number">Count, take of me my daughter, and with her my</li>
  <li>fortunes: his grace hath made the match, and an</li>
  <li>grace say Amen to it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>Speak, count, 'tis your cue.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Silence is the perfectest herald of joy: I were</li>
  <li class="number">but little happy, if I could say how much. Lady, as</li>
  <li>you are mine, I am yours: I give away myself for</li>
  <li>you and dote upon the exchange.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>Speak, cousin; or, if you cannot, stop his mouth</li>
  <li>with a kiss, and let not him speak neither.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li class="number">In faith, lady, you have a merry heart.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>Yea, my lord; I thank it, poor fool, it keeps on</li>
  <li>the windy side of care. My cousin tells him in his</li>
  <li>ear that he is in her heart.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>And so she doth, cousin.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li class="number">Good Lord, for alliance! Thus goes every one to the</li>
  <li>world but I, and I am sunburnt; I may sit in a</li>
  <li>corner and cry heigh-ho for a husband!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Lady Beatrice, I will get you one.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>I would rather have one of your father's getting.</li>
  <li class="number">Hath your grace ne'er a brother like you? Your</li>
  <li>father got excellent husbands, if a maid could come by them.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Will you have me, lady?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>No, my lord, unless I might have another for</li>
  <li>working-days: your grace is too costly to wear</li>
  <li class="number">every day. But, I beseech your grace, pardon me: I</li>
  <li>was born to speak all mirth and no matter.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Your silence most offends me, and to be merry best</li>
  <li>becomes you; for, out of question, you were born in</li>
  <li>a merry hour.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li class="number">No, sure, my lord, my mother cried; but then there</li>
  <li>was a star danced, and under that was I born.</li>
  <li>Cousins, God give you joy!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>Niece, will you look to those things I told you of?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>I cry you mercy, uncle. By your grace's pardon.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li class="number">By my troth, a pleasant-spirited lady.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>There's little of the melancholy element in her, my</li>
  <li>lord: she is never sad but when she sleeps, and</li>
  <li>not ever sad then; for I have heard my daughter say,</li>
  <li>she hath often dreamed of unhappiness and waked</li>
  <li class="number">herself with laughing.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>She cannot endure to hear tell of a husband.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>O, by no means: she mocks all her wooers out of suit.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>She were an excellent wife for Benedict.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>O Lord, my lord, if they were but a week married,</li>
  <li class="number">they would talk themselves mad.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>County Claudio, when mean you to go to church?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>To-morrow, my lord: time goes on crutches till love</li>
  <li>have all his rites.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>Not till Monday, my dear son, which is hence a just</li>
  <li class="number">seven-night; and a time too brief, too, to have all</li>
  <li>things answer my mind.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Come, you shake the head at so long a breathing:</li>
  <li>but, I warrant thee, Claudio, the time shall not go</li>
  <li>dully by us. I will in the interim undertake one of</li>
  <li class="number">Hercules' labours; which is, to bring Signior</li>
  <li>Benedick and the Lady Beatrice into a mountain of</li>
  <li>affection the one with the other. I would fain have</li>
  <li>it a match, and I doubt not but to fashion it, if</li>
  <li>you three will but minister such assistance as I</li>
  <li class="number">shall give you direction.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>My lord, I am for you, though it cost me ten</li>
  <li>nights' watchings.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>And I, my lord.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>And you too, gentle Hero?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li class="number">I will do any modest office, my lord, to help my</li>
  <li>cousin to a good husband.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>And Benedick is not the unhopefullest husband that</li>
  <li>I know. Thus far can I praise him; he is of a noble</li>
  <li>strain, of approved valour and confirmed honesty. I</li>
  <li class="number">will teach you how to humour your cousin, that she</li>
  <li>shall fall in love with Benedick; and I, with your</li>
  <li>two helps, will so practise on Benedick that, in</li>
  <li>despite of his quick wit and his queasy stomach, he</li>
  <li>shall fall in love with Beatrice. If we can do this,</li>
  <li class="number">Cupid is no longer an archer: his glory shall be</li>
  <li>ours, for we are the only love-gods. Go in with me,</li>
  <li>and I will tell you my drift.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

</section>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE II.  The same.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter DON JOHN and BORACHIO</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li>It is so; the Count Claudio shall marry the</li>
  <li>daughter of Leonato.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BORACHIO</li>
  <li>Yea, my lord; but I can cross it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li>Any bar, any cross, any impediment will be</li>
  <li class="number">medicinable to me: I am sick in displeasure to him,</li>
  <li>and whatsoever comes athwart his affection ranges</li>
  <li>evenly with mine. How canst thou cross this marriage?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BORACHIO</li>
  <li>Not honestly, my lord; but so covertly that no</li>
  <li>dishonesty shall appear in me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li class="number">Show me briefly how.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BORACHIO</li>
  <li>I think I told your lordship a year since, how much</li>
  <li>I am in the favour of Margaret, the waiting</li>
  <li>gentlewoman to Hero.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li>I remember.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BORACHIO</li>
  <li class="number">I can, at any unseasonable instant of the night,</li>
  <li>appoint her to look out at her lady's chamber window.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li>What life is in that, to be the death of this marriage?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BORACHIO</li>
  <li>The poison of that lies in you to temper. Go you to</li>
  <li>the prince your brother; spare not to tell him that</li>
  <li class="number">he hath wronged his honour in marrying the renowned</li>
  <li>Claudio — whose estimation do you mightily hold</li>
  <li>up — to a contaminated stale, such a one as Hero.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li>What proof shall I make of that?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BORACHIO</li>
  <li>Proof enough to misuse the prince, to vex Claudio,</li>
  <li class="number">to undo Hero and kill Leonato. Look you for any</li>
  <li>other issue?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li>Only to despite them, I will endeavour any thing.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BORACHIO</li>
  <li>Go, then; find me a meet hour to draw Don Pedro and</li>
  <li>the Count Claudio alone: tell them that you know</li>
  <li class="number">that Hero loves me; intend a kind of zeal both to the</li>
  <li>prince and Claudio, as —  in love of your brother's</li>
  <li>honour, who hath made this match, and his friend's</li>
  <li>reputation, who is thus like to be cozened with the</li>
  <li>semblance of a maid —  that you have discovered</li>
  <li class="number">thus. They will scarcely believe this without trial:</li>
  <li>offer them instances; which shall bear no less</li>
  <li>likelihood than to see me at her chamber-window,</li>
  <li>hear me call Margaret Hero, hear Margaret term me</li>
  <li>Claudio; and bring them to see this the very night</li>
  <li class="number">before the intended wedding —  for in the meantime I</li>
  <li>will so fashion the matter that Hero shall be</li>
  <li>absent —  and there shall appear such seeming truth</li>
  <li>of Hero's disloyalty that jealousy shall be called</li>
  <li>assurance and all the preparation overthrown.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li class="number">Grow this to what adverse issue it can, I will put</li>
  <li>it in practise. Be cunning in the working this, and</li>
  <li>thy fee is a thousand ducats.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BORACHIO</li>
  <li>Be you constant in the accusation, and my cunning</li>
  <li>shall not shame me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li class="number">I will presently go learn their day of marriage.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

</section>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE III.  LEONATO'S orchard.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter BENEDICK</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Boy!</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter Boy</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Boy</li>
  <li>Signior?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>In my chamber-window lies a book: bring it hither</li>
  <li>to me in the orchard.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Boy</li>
  <li class="number">I am here already, sir.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>I know that; but I would have thee hence, and here again.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Exit Boy</li>
  <li>I do much wonder that one man, seeing how much</li>
  <li>another man is a fool when he dedicates his</li>
  <li>behaviors to love, will, after he hath laughed at</li>
  <li class="number">such shallow follies in others, become the argument</li>
  <li>of his own scorn by failing in love: and such a man</li>
  <li>is Claudio. I have known when there was no music</li>
  <li>with him but the drum and the fife; and now had he</li>
  <li>rather hear the tabour and the pipe: I have known</li>
  <li class="number">when he would have walked ten mile a-foot to see a</li>
  <li>good armour; and now will he lie ten nights awake,</li>
  <li>carving the fashion of a new doublet. He was wont to</li>
  <li>speak plain and to the purpose, like an honest man</li>
  <li>and a soldier; and now is he turned orthography; his</li>
  <li class="number">words are a very fantastical banquet, just so many</li>
  <li>strange dishes. May I be so converted and see with</li>
  <li>these eyes? I cannot tell; I think not: I will not</li>
  <li>be sworn, but love may transform me to an oyster; but</li>
  <li>I'll take my oath on it, till he have made an oyster</li>
  <li class="number">of me, he shall never make me such a fool. One woman</li>
  <li>is fair, yet I am well; another is wise, yet I am</li>
  <li>well; another virtuous, yet I am well; but till all</li>
  <li>graces be in one woman, one woman shall not come in</li>
  <li>my grace. Rich she shall be, that's certain; wise,</li>
  <li class="number">or I'll none; virtuous, or I'll never cheapen her;</li>
  <li>fair, or I'll   never look on her; mild, or come not</li>
  <li>near me; noble, or not I for an angel; of good</li>
  <li>discourse, an excellent musician, and her hair shall</li>
  <li>be of what colour it please God. Ha! the prince and</li>
  <li class="number">Monsieur Love! I will hide me in the arbour.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Withdraws</div>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter DON PEDRO, CLAUDIO, and LEONATO</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Come, shall we hear this music?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Yea, my good lord. How still the evening is,</li>
  <li>As hush'd on purpose to grace harmony!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>See you where Benedick hath hid himself?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li class="number">O, very well, my lord: the music ended,</li>
  <li>We'll fit the kid-fox with a pennyworth.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter BALTHASAR with Music</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Come, Balthasar, we'll hear that song again.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BALTHASAR</li>
  <li>O, good my lord, tax not so bad a voice</li>
  <li>To slander music any more than once.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li class="number">It is the witness still of excellency</li>
  <li>To put a strange face on his own perfection.</li>
  <li>I pray thee, sing, and let me woo no more.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BALTHASAR</li>
  <li>Because you talk of wooing, I will sing;</li>
  <li>Since many a wooer doth commence his suit</li>
  <li class="number">To her he thinks not worthy, yet he wooes,</li>
  <li>Yet will he swear he loves.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Now, pray thee, come;</li>
  <li>Or, if thou wilt hold longer argument,</li>
  <li>Do it in notes.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BALTHASAR</li>
  <li class="number">Note this before my notes;</li>
  <li>There's not a note of mine that's worth the noting.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Why, these are very crotchets that he speaks;</li>
  <li>Note, notes, forsooth, and nothing.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Air</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Now, divine air! now is his soul ravished! Is it</li>
  <li class="number">not strange that sheeps' guts should hale souls out</li>
  <li>of men's bodies? Well, a horn for my money, when</li>
  <li>all's done.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">The Song</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BALTHASAR</li>
  <li>Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,</li>
  <li>Men were deceivers ever,</li>
  <li class="number">One foot in sea and one on shore,</li>
  <li>To one thing constant never:</li>
  <li>Then sigh not so, but let them go,</li>
  <li>And be you blithe and bonny,</li>
  <li>Converting all your sounds of woe</li>
  <li class="number">Into Hey nonny, nonny.</li>
  <li>Sing no more ditties, sing no moe,</li>
  <li>Of dumps so dull and heavy;</li>
  <li>The fraud of men was ever so,</li>
  <li>Since summer first was leafy:</li>
  <li class="number">Then sigh not so, etc..</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>By my troth, a good song.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BALTHASAR</li>
  <li>And an ill singer, my lord.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Ha, no, no, faith; thou singest well enough for a shift.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>An he had been a dog that should have howled thus,</li>
  <li class="number">they would have hanged him: and I pray God his bad</li>
  <li>voice bode no mischief. I had as lief have heard the</li>
  <li>night-raven, come what plague could have come after</li>
  <li>it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Yea, marry, dost thou hear, Balthasar? I pray thee,</li>
  <li class="number">get us some excellent music; for to-morrow night we</li>
  <li>would have it at the Lady Hero's chamber-window.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BALTHASAR</li>
  <li>The best I can, my lord.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Do so: farewell.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Exit BALTHASAR</li>
  <li>Come hither, Leonato. What was it you told me of</li>
  <li class="number">to-day, that your niece Beatrice was in love with</li>
  <li>Signior Benedick?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>O, ay: stalk on. stalk on; the fowl sits. I did</li>
  <li>never think that lady would have loved any man.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>No, nor I neither; but most wonderful that she</li>
  <li class="number">should so dote on Signior Benedick, whom she hath in</li>
  <li>all outward behaviors seemed ever to abhor.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Is't possible? Sits the wind in that corner?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>By my troth, my lord, I cannot tell what to think</li>
  <li>of it but that she loves him with an enraged</li>
  <li class="number">affection: it is past the infinite of thought.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>May be she doth but counterfeit.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Faith, like enough.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>O God, counterfeit! There was never counterfeit of</li>
  <li>passion came so near the life of passion as she</li>
  <li class="number">discovers it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Why, what effects of passion shows she?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Bait the hook well; this fish will bite.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>What effects, my lord? She will sit you, you heard</li>
  <li>my daughter tell you how.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li class="number">She did, indeed.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>How, how, pray you? You amaze me: I would have I</li>
  <li>thought her spirit had been invincible against all</li>
  <li>assaults of affection.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>I would have sworn it had, my lord; especially</li>
  <li class="number">against Benedick.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>I should think this a gull, but that the</li>
  <li>white-bearded fellow speaks it: knavery cannot,</li>
  <li>sure, hide himself in such reverence.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>He hath ta'en the infection: hold it up.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li class="number">Hath she made her affection known to Benedick?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>No; and swears she never will: that's her torment.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>'Tis true, indeed; so your daughter says: 'Shall</li>
  <li>I,' says she, 'that have so oft encountered him</li>
  <li>with scorn, write to him that I love him?'</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li class="number">This says she now when she is beginning to write to</li>
  <li>him; for she'll be up twenty times a night, and</li>
  <li>there will she sit in her smock till she have writ a</li>
  <li>sheet of paper: my daughter tells us all.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Now you talk of a sheet of paper, I remember a</li>
  <li class="number">pretty jest your daughter told us of.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>O, when she had writ it and was reading it over, she</li>
  <li>found Benedick and Beatrice between the sheet?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>That.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>O, she tore the letter into a thousand halfpence;</li>
  <li class="number">railed at herself, that she should be so immodest</li>
  <li>to write to one that she knew would flout her; 'I</li>
  <li>measure him,' says she, 'by my own spirit; for I</li>
  <li>should flout him, if he writ to me; yea, though I</li>
  <li>love him, I should.'</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li class="number">Then down upon her knees she falls, weeps, sobs,</li>
  <li>beats her heart, tears her hair, prays, curses; 'O</li>
  <li>sweet Benedick! God give me patience!'</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>She doth indeed; my daughter says so: and the</li>
  <li>ecstasy hath so much overborne her that my daughter</li>
  <li class="number">is sometime afeared she will do a desperate outrage</li>
  <li>to herself: it is very true.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>It were good that Benedick knew of it by some</li>
  <li>other, if she will not discover it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>To what end? He would make but a sport of it and</li>
  <li class="number">torment the poor lady worse.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>An he should, it were an alms to hang him. She's an</li>
  <li>excellent sweet lady; and, out of all suspicion,</li>
  <li>she is virtuous.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>And she is exceeding wise.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li class="number">In every thing but in loving Benedick.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>O, my lord, wisdom and blood combating in so tender</li>
  <li>a body, we have ten proofs to one that blood hath</li>
  <li>the victory. I am sorry for her, as I have just</li>
  <li>cause, being her uncle and her guardian.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li class="number">I would she had bestowed this dotage on me: I would</li>
  <li>have daffed all other respects and made her half</li>
  <li>myself. I pray you, tell Benedick of it, and hear</li>
  <li>what a' will say.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>Were it good, think you?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li class="number">Hero thinks surely she will die; for she says she</li>
  <li>will die, if he love her not, and she will die, ere</li>
  <li>she make her love known, and she will die, if he woo</li>
  <li>her, rather than she will bate one breath of her</li>
  <li>accustomed crossness.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li class="number">She doth well: if she should make tender of her</li>
  <li>love, 'tis very possible he'll scorn it; for the</li>
  <li>man, as you know all, hath a contemptible spirit.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>He is a very proper man.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>He hath indeed a good outward happiness.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li class="number">Before God! and, in my mind, very wise.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>He doth indeed show some sparks that are like wit.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>And I take him to be valiant.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>As Hector, I assure you: and in the managing of</li>
  <li>quarrels you may say he is wise; for either he</li>
  <li class="number">avoids them with great discretion, or undertakes</li>
  <li>them with a most Christian-like fear.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>If he do fear God, a' must necessarily keep peace:</li>
  <li>if he break the peace, he ought to enter into a</li>
  <li>quarrel with fear and trembling.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li class="number">And so will he do; for the man doth fear God,</li>
  <li>howsoever it seems not in him by some large jests</li>
  <li>he will make. Well I am sorry for your niece. Shall</li>
  <li>we go seek Benedick, and tell him of her love?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Never tell him, my lord: let her wear it out with</li>
  <li class="number">good counsel.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>Nay, that's impossible: she may wear her heart out first.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Well, we will hear further of it by your daughter:</li>
  <li>let it cool the while. I love Benedick well; and I</li>
  <li>could wish he would modestly examine himself, to see</li>
  <li class="number">how much he is unworthy so good a lady.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>My lord, will you walk? dinner is ready.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>If he do not dote on her upon this, I will never</li>
  <li>trust my expectation.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Let there be the same net spread for her; and that</li>
  <li class="number">must your daughter and her gentlewomen carry. The</li>
  <li>sport will be, when they hold one an opinion of</li>
  <li>another's dotage, and no such matter: that's the</li>
  <li>scene that I would see, which will be merely a</li>
  <li>dumb-show. Let us send her to call him in to dinner.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt DON PEDRO, CLAUDIO, and LEONATO</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li class="number">Coming forward  This can be no trick: the</li>
  <li>conference was sadly borne. They have the truth of</li>
  <li>this from Hero. They seem to pity the lady: it</li>
  <li>seems her affections have their full bent. Love me!</li>
  <li>why, it must be requited. I hear how I am censured:</li>
  <li class="number">they say I will bear myself proudly, if I perceive</li>
  <li>the love come from her; they say too that she will</li>
  <li>rather die than give any sign of affection. I did</li>
  <li>never think to marry: I must not seem proud: happy</li>
  <li>are they that hear their detractions and can put</li>
  <li class="number">them to mending. They say the lady is fair; 'tis a</li>
  <li>truth, I can bear them witness; and virtuous; 'tis</li>
  <li>so, I cannot reprove it; and wise, but for loving</li>
  <li>me; by my troth, it is no addition to her wit, nor</li>
  <li>no great argument of her folly, for I will be</li>
  <li class="number">horribly in love with her. I may chance have some</li>
  <li>odd quirks and remnants of wit broken on me,</li>
  <li>because I have railed so long against marriage: but</li>
  <li>doth not the appetite alter? a man loves the meat</li>
  <li>in his youth that he cannot endure in his age.</li>
  <li class="number">Shall quips and sentences and these paper bullets of</li>
  <li>the brain awe a man from the career of his humour?</li>
  <li>No, the world must be peopled. When I said I would</li>
  <li>die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I</li>
  <li>were married. Here comes Beatrice. By this day!</li>
  <li class="number">she's a fair lady: I do spy some marks of love in</li>
  <li>her.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter BEATRICE</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>Against my will I am sent to bid you come in to dinner.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Fair Beatrice, I thank you for your pains.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>I took no more pains for those thanks than you take</li>
  <li class="number">pains to thank me: if it had been painful, I would</li>
  <li>not have come.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>You take pleasure then in the message?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>Yea, just so much as you may take upon a knife's</li>
  <li>point and choke a daw withal. You have no stomach,</li>
  <li class="number">signior: fare you well.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Ha! 'Against my will I am sent to bid you come in</li>
  <li>to dinner;' there's a double meaning in that 'I took</li>
  <li>no more pains for those thanks than you took pains</li>
  <li>to thank me.' that's as much as to say, Any pains</li>
  <li class="number">that I take for you is as easy as thanks. If I do</li>
  <li>not take pity of her, I am a villain; if I do not</li>
  <li>love her, I am a Jew. I will go get her picture.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

</section>

</section>

<section class="act">

<h2>ACT III</h2>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE I.  LEONATO'S garden.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter HERO, MARGARET, and URSULA</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li>Good Margaret, run thee to the parlor;</li>
  <li>There shalt thou find my cousin Beatrice</li>
  <li>Proposing with the prince and Claudio:</li>
  <li>Whisper her ear and tell her, I and Ursula</li>
  <li class="number">Walk in the orchard and our whole discourse</li>
  <li>Is all of her; say that thou overheard'st us;</li>
  <li>And bid her steal into the pleached bower,</li>
  <li>Where honeysuckles, ripen'd by the sun,</li>
  <li>Forbid the sun to enter, like favourites,</li>
  <li class="number">Made proud by princes, that advance their pride</li>
  <li>Against that power that bred it: there will she hide her,</li>
  <li>To listen our purpose.  This is thy office;</li>
  <li>Bear thee well in it and leave us alone.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARGARET</li>
  <li>I'll make her come, I warrant you, presently.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li class="number">Now, Ursula, when Beatrice doth come,</li>
  <li>As we do trace this alley up and down,</li>
  <li>Our talk must only be of Benedick.</li>
  <li>When I do name him, let it be thy part</li>
  <li>To praise him more than ever man did merit:</li>
  <li class="number">My talk to thee must be how Benedick</li>
  <li>Is sick in love with Beatrice. Of this matter</li>
  <li>Is little Cupid's crafty arrow made,</li>
  <li>That only wounds by hearsay.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Enter BEATRICE, behind</li>
  <li>Now begin;</li>
  <li class="number">For look where Beatrice, like a lapwing, runs</li>
  <li>Close by the ground, to hear our conference.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">URSULA</li>
  <li>The pleasant'st angling is to see the fish</li>
  <li>Cut with her golden oars the silver stream,</li>
  <li>And greedily devour the treacherous bait:</li>
  <li class="number">So angle we for Beatrice; who even now</li>
  <li>Is couched in the woodbine coverture.</li>
  <li>Fear you not my part of the dialogue.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li>Then go we near her, that her ear lose nothing</li>
  <li>Of the false sweet bait that we lay for it.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Approaching the bower</li>
  <li class="number">No, truly, Ursula, she is too disdainful;</li>
  <li>I know her spirits are as coy and wild</li>
  <li>As haggerds of the rock.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">URSULA</li>
  <li>But are you sure</li>
  <li>That Benedick loves Beatrice so entirely?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li class="number">So says the prince and my new-trothed lord.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">URSULA</li>
  <li>And did they bid you tell her of it, madam?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li>They did entreat me to acquaint her of it;</li>
  <li>But I persuaded them, if they loved Benedick,</li>
  <li>To wish him wrestle with affection,</li>
  <li class="number">And never to let Beatrice know of it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">URSULA</li>
  <li>Why did you so? Doth not the gentleman</li>
  <li>Deserve as full as fortunate a bed</li>
  <li>As ever Beatrice shall couch upon?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li>O god of love! I know he doth deserve</li>
  <li class="number">As much as may be yielded to a man:</li>
  <li>But Nature never framed a woman's heart</li>
  <li>Of prouder stuff than that of Beatrice;</li>
  <li>Disdain and scorn ride sparkling in her eyes,</li>
  <li>Misprising what they look on, and her wit</li>
  <li class="number">Values itself so highly that to her</li>
  <li>All matter else seems weak: she cannot love,</li>
  <li>Nor take no shape nor project of affection,</li>
  <li>She is so self-endeared.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">URSULA</li>
  <li>Sure, I think so;</li>
  <li class="number">And therefore certainly it were not good</li>
  <li>She knew his love, lest she make sport at it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li>Why, you speak truth. I never yet saw man,</li>
  <li>How wise, how noble, young, how rarely featured,</li>
  <li>But she would spell him backward: if fair-faced,</li>
  <li class="number">She would swear the gentleman should be her sister;</li>
  <li>If black, why, Nature, drawing of an antique,</li>
  <li>Made a foul blot; if tall, a lance ill-headed;</li>
  <li>If low, an agate very vilely cut;</li>
  <li>If speaking, why, a vane blown with all winds;</li>
  <li class="number">If silent, why, a block moved with none.</li>
  <li>So turns she every man the wrong side out</li>
  <li>And never gives to truth and virtue that</li>
  <li>Which simpleness and merit purchaseth.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">URSULA</li>
  <li>Sure, sure, such carping is not commendable.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li class="number">No, not to be so odd and from all fashions</li>
  <li>As Beatrice is, cannot be commendable:</li>
  <li>But who dare tell her so? If I should speak,</li>
  <li>She would mock me into air; O, she would laugh me</li>
  <li>Out of myself, press me to death with wit.</li>
  <li class="number">Therefore let Benedick, like cover'd fire,</li>
  <li>Consume away in sighs, waste inwardly:</li>
  <li>It were a better death than die with mocks,</li>
  <li>Which is as bad as die with tickling.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">URSULA</li>
  <li>Yet tell her of it: hear what she will say.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li class="number">No; rather I will go to Benedick</li>
  <li>And counsel him to fight against his passion.</li>
  <li>And, truly, I'll devise some honest slanders</li>
  <li>To stain my cousin with: one doth not know</li>
  <li>How much an ill word may empoison liking.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">URSULA</li>
  <li class="number">O, do not do your cousin such a wrong.</li>
  <li>She cannot be so much without true judgment — </li>
  <li>Having so swift and excellent a wit</li>
  <li>As she is prized to have — as to refuse</li>
  <li>So rare a gentleman as Signior Benedick.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li class="number">He is the only man of Italy.</li>
  <li>Always excepted my dear Claudio.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">URSULA</li>
  <li>I pray you, be not angry with me, madam,</li>
  <li>Speaking my fancy: Signior Benedick,</li>
  <li>For shape, for bearing, argument and valour,</li>
  <li class="number">Goes foremost in report through Italy.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li>Indeed, he hath an excellent good name.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">URSULA</li>
  <li>His excellence did earn it, ere he had it.</li>
  <li>When are you married, madam?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li>Why, every day, to-morrow. Come, go in:</li>
  <li class="number">I'll show thee some attires, and have thy counsel</li>
  <li>Which is the best to furnish me to-morrow.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">URSULA</li>
  <li>She's limed, I warrant you: we have caught her, madam.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li>If it proves so, then loving goes by haps:</li>
  <li>Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt HERO and URSULA</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li class="number">Coming forward</li>
  <li>What fire is in mine ears? Can this be true?</li>
  <li>Stand I condemn'd for pride and scorn so much?</li>
  <li>Contempt, farewell! and maiden pride, adieu!</li>
  <li>No glory lives behind the back of such.</li>
  <li class="number">And, Benedick, love on; I will requite thee,</li>
  <li>Taming my wild heart to thy loving hand:</li>
  <li>If thou dost love, my kindness shall incite thee</li>
  <li>To bind our loves up in a holy band;</li>
  <li>For others say thou dost deserve, and I</li>
  <li class="number">Believe it better than reportingly.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

</section>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE II.  A room in LEONATO'S house</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter DON PEDRO, CLAUDIO, BENEDICK, and LEONATO</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>I do but stay till your marriage be consummate, and</li>
  <li>then go I toward Arragon.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>I'll bring you thither, my lord, if you'll</li>
  <li>vouchsafe me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li class="number">Nay, that would be as great a soil in the new gloss</li>
  <li>of your marriage as to show a child his new coat</li>
  <li>and forbid him to wear it. I will only be bold</li>
  <li>with Benedick for his company; for, from the crown</li>
  <li>of his head to the sole of his foot, he is all</li>
  <li class="number">mirth: he hath twice or thrice cut Cupid's</li>
  <li>bow-string and the little hangman dare not shoot at</li>
  <li>him; he hath a heart as sound as a bell and his</li>
  <li>tongue is the clapper, for what his heart thinks his</li>
  <li>tongue speaks.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li class="number">Gallants, I am not as I have been.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>So say I methinks you are sadder.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>I hope he be in love.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Hang him, truant! there's no true drop of blood in</li>
  <li>him, to be truly touched with love: if he be sad,</li>
  <li class="number">he wants money.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>I have the toothache.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Draw it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Hang it!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>You must hang it first, and draw it afterwards.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li class="number">What! sigh for the toothache?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>Where is but a humour or a worm.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Well, every one can master a grief but he that has</li>
  <li>it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Yet say I, he is in love.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li class="number">There is no appearance of fancy in him, unless it be</li>
  <li>a fancy that he hath to strange disguises; as, to be</li>
  <li>a Dutchman today, a Frenchman to-morrow, or in the</li>
  <li>shape of two countries at once, as, a German from</li>
  <li>the waist downward, all slops, and a Spaniard from</li>
  <li class="number">the hip upward, no doublet. Unless he have a fancy</li>
  <li>to this foolery, as it appears he hath, he is no</li>
  <li>fool for fancy, as you would have it appear he is.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>If he be not in love with some woman, there is no</li>
  <li>believing old signs: a' brushes his hat o'</li>
  <li class="number">mornings; what should that bode?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Hath any man seen him at the barber's?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>No, but the barber's man hath been seen with him,</li>
  <li>and the old ornament of his cheek hath already</li>
  <li>stuffed tennis-balls.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li class="number">Indeed, he looks younger than he did, by the loss of a beard.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Nay, a' rubs himself with civet: can you smell him</li>
  <li>out by that?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>That's as much as to say, the sweet youth's in love.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>The greatest note of it is his melancholy.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li class="number">And when was he wont to wash his face?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Yea, or to paint himself? for the which, I hear</li>
  <li>what they say of him.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Nay, but his jesting spirit; which is now crept into</li>
  <li>a lute-string and now governed by stops.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li class="number">Indeed, that tells a heavy tale for him: conclude,</li>
  <li>conclude he is in love.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Nay, but I know who loves him.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>That would I know too: I warrant, one that knows him not.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Yes, and his ill conditions; and, in despite of</li>
  <li class="number">all, dies for him.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>She shall be buried with her face upwards.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Yet is this no charm for the toothache. Old</li>
  <li>signior, walk aside with me: I have studied eight</li>
  <li>or nine wise words to speak to you, which these</li>
  <li class="number">hobby-horses must not hear.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt BENEDICK and LEONATO</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>For my life, to break with him about Beatrice.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>'Tis even so. Hero and Margaret have by this</li>
  <li>played their parts with Beatrice; and then the two</li>
  <li>bears will not bite one another when they meet.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter DON JOHN</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li class="number">My lord and brother, God save you!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Good den, brother.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li>If your leisure served, I would speak with you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>In private?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li>If it please you: yet Count Claudio may hear; for</li>
  <li class="number">what I would speak of concerns him.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>What's the matter?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li>To CLAUDIO  Means your lordship to be married</li>
  <li>to-morrow?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>You know he does.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li class="number">I know not that, when he knows what I know.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>If there be any impediment, I pray you discover it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li>You may think I love you not: let that appear</li>
  <li>hereafter, and aim better at me by that I now will</li>
  <li>manifest. For my brother, I think he holds you</li>
  <li class="number">well, and in dearness of heart hath holp to effect</li>
  <li>your ensuing marriage; — surely suit ill spent and</li>
  <li>labour ill bestowed.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Why, what's the matter?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li>I came hither to tell you; and, circumstances</li>
  <li class="number">shortened, for she has been too long a talking of,</li>
  <li>the lady is disloyal.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Who, Hero?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Even she; Leonato's Hero, your Hero, every man's Hero:</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Disloyal?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li class="number">The word is too good to paint out her wickedness; I</li>
  <li>could say she were worse: think you of a worse</li>
  <li>title, and I will fit her to it. Wonder not till</li>
  <li>further warrant: go but with me to-night, you shall</li>
  <li>see her chamber-window entered, even the night</li>
  <li class="number">before her wedding-day: if you love her then,</li>
  <li>to-morrow wed her; but it would better fit your honour</li>
  <li>to change your mind.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>May this be so?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>I will not think it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li class="number">If you dare not trust that you see, confess not</li>
  <li>that you know: if you will follow me, I will show</li>
  <li>you enough; and when you have seen more and heard</li>
  <li>more, proceed accordingly.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>If I see any thing to-night why I should not marry</li>
  <li class="number">her to-morrow in the congregation, where I should</li>
  <li>wed, there will I shame her.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>And, as I wooed for thee to obtain her, I will join</li>
  <li>with thee to disgrace her.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li>I will disparage her no farther till you are my</li>
  <li class="number">witnesses: bear it coldly but till midnight, and</li>
  <li>let the issue show itself.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>O day untowardly turned!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>O mischief strangely thwarting!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li>O plague right well prevented! so will you say when</li>
  <li class="number">you have seen the sequel.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

</section>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE III.  A street.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter DOGBERRY and VERGES with the Watch</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>Are you good men and true?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">VERGES</li>
  <li>Yea, or else it were pity but they should suffer</li>
  <li>salvation, body and soul.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>Nay, that were a punishment too good for them, if</li>
  <li class="number">they should have any allegiance in them, being</li>
  <li>chosen for the prince's watch.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">VERGES</li>
  <li>Well, give them their charge, neighbour Dogberry.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>First, who think you the most desertless man to be</li>
  <li>constable?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">First Watchman</li>
  <li class="number">Hugh Otecake, sir, or George Seacole; for they can</li>
  <li>write and read.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>Come hither, neighbour Seacole. God hath blessed</li>
  <li>you with a good name: to be a well-favoured man is</li>
  <li>the gift of fortune; but to write and read comes by nature.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Second Watchman</li>
  <li class="number">Both which, master constable —  </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>You have: I knew it would be your answer. Well,</li>
  <li>for your favour, sir, why, give God thanks, and make</li>
  <li>no boast of it; and for your writing and reading,</li>
  <li>let that appear when there is no need of such</li>
  <li class="number">vanity. You are thought here to be the most</li>
  <li>senseless and fit man for the constable of the</li>
  <li>watch; therefore bear you the lantern. This is your</li>
  <li>charge: you shall comprehend all vagrom men; you are</li>
  <li>to bid any man stand, in the prince's name.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Second Watchman</li>
  <li class="number">How if a' will not stand?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>Why, then, take no note of him, but let him go; and</li>
  <li>presently call the rest of the watch together and</li>
  <li>thank God you are rid of a knave.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">VERGES</li>
  <li>If he will not stand when he is bidden, he is none</li>
  <li class="number">of the prince's subjects.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>True, and they are to meddle with none but the</li>
  <li>prince's subjects. You shall also make no noise in</li>
  <li>the streets; for, for the watch to babble and to</li>
  <li>talk is most tolerable and not to be endured.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Watchman</li>
  <li class="number">We will rather sleep than talk: we know what</li>
  <li>belongs to a watch.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>Why, you speak like an ancient and most quiet</li>
  <li>watchman; for I cannot see how sleeping should</li>
  <li>offend: only, have a care that your bills be not</li>
  <li class="number">stolen. Well, you are to call at all the</li>
  <li>ale-houses, and bid those that are drunk get them to bed.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Watchman</li>
  <li>How if they will not?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>Why, then, let them alone till they are sober: if</li>
  <li>they make you not then the better answer, you may</li>
  <li class="number">say they are not the men you took them for.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Watchman</li>
  <li>Well, sir.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>If you meet a thief, you may suspect him, by virtue</li>
  <li>of your office, to be no true man; and, for such</li>
  <li>kind of men, the less you meddle or make with them,</li>
  <li class="number">why the more is for your honesty.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Watchman</li>
  <li>If we know him to be a thief, shall we not lay</li>
  <li>hands on him?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>Truly, by your office, you may; but I think they</li>
  <li>that touch pitch will be defiled: the most peaceable</li>
  <li class="number">way for you, if you do take a thief, is to let him</li>
  <li>show himself what he is and steal out of your company.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">VERGES</li>
  <li>You have been always called a merciful man, partner.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>Truly, I would not hang a dog by my will, much more</li>
  <li>a man who hath any honesty in him.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">VERGES</li>
  <li class="number">If you hear a child cry in the night, you must call</li>
  <li>to the nurse and bid her still it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Watchman</li>
  <li>How if the nurse be asleep and will not hear us?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>Why, then, depart in peace, and let the child wake</li>
  <li>her with crying; for the ewe that will not hear her</li>
  <li class="number">lamb when it baes will never answer a calf when he bleats.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">VERGES</li>
  <li>'Tis very true.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>This is the end of the charge: — you, constable, are</li>
  <li>to present the prince's own person: if you meet the</li>
  <li>prince in the night, you may stay him.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">VERGES</li>
  <li class="number">Nay, by'r our lady, that I think a' cannot.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>Five shillings to one on't, with any man that knows</li>
  <li>the statutes, he may stay him: marry, not without</li>
  <li>the prince be willing; for, indeed, the watch ought</li>
  <li>to offend no man; and it is an offence to stay a</li>
  <li class="number">man against his will.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">VERGES</li>
  <li>By'r lady, I think it be so.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>Ha, ha, ha! Well, masters, good night: an there be</li>
  <li>any matter of weight chances, call up me: keep your</li>
  <li>fellows' counsels and your own; and good night.</li>
  <li class="number">Come, neighbour.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Watchman</li>
  <li>Well, masters, we hear our charge: let us go sit here</li>
  <li>upon the church-bench till two, and then all to bed.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>One word more, honest neighbours. I pray you watch</li>
  <li>about Signior Leonato's door; for the wedding being</li>
  <li class="number">there to-morrow, there is a great coil to-night.</li>
  <li>Adieu: be vigitant, I beseech you.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt DOGBERRY and VERGES</div>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter BORACHIO and CONRADE</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BORACHIO</li>
  <li>What Conrade!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Watchman</li>
  <li>Aside  Peace! stir not.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BORACHIO</li>
  <li>Conrade, I say!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CONRADE</li>
  <li class="number">Here, man; I am at thy elbow.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BORACHIO</li>
  <li>Mass, and my elbow itched; I thought there would a</li>
  <li>scab follow.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CONRADE</li>
  <li>I will owe thee an answer for that: and now forward</li>
  <li>with thy tale.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BORACHIO</li>
  <li class="number">Stand thee close, then, under this pent-house, for</li>
  <li>it drizzles rain; and I will, like a true drunkard,</li>
  <li>utter all to thee.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Watchman</li>
  <li>Aside  Some treason, masters: yet stand close.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BORACHIO</li>
  <li>Therefore know I have earned of Don John a thousand ducats.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CONRADE</li>
  <li class="number">Is it possible that any villany should be so dear?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BORACHIO</li>
  <li>Thou shouldst rather ask if it were possible any</li>
  <li>villany should be so rich; for when rich villains</li>
  <li>have need of poor ones, poor ones may make what</li>
  <li>price they will.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CONRADE</li>
  <li class="number">I wonder at it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BORACHIO</li>
  <li>That shows thou art unconfirmed. Thou knowest that</li>
  <li>the fashion of a doublet, or a hat, or a cloak, is</li>
  <li>nothing to a man.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CONRADE</li>
  <li>Yes, it is apparel.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BORACHIO</li>
  <li class="number">I mean, the fashion.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CONRADE</li>
  <li>Yes, the fashion is the fashion.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BORACHIO</li>
  <li>Tush! I may as well say the fool's the fool. But</li>
  <li>seest thou not what a deformed thief this fashion</li>
  <li>is?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Watchman</li>
  <li class="number">Aside  I know that Deformed; a' has been a vile</li>
  <li>thief this seven year; a' goes up and down like a</li>
  <li>gentleman: I remember his name.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BORACHIO</li>
  <li>Didst thou not hear somebody?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CONRADE</li>
  <li>No; 'twas the vane on the house.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BORACHIO</li>
  <li class="number">Seest thou not, I say, what a deformed thief this</li>
  <li>fashion is? how giddily a' turns about all the hot</li>
  <li>bloods between fourteen and five-and-thirty?</li>
  <li>sometimes fashioning them like Pharaoh's soldiers</li>
  <li>in the reeky painting, sometime like god Bel's</li>
  <li class="number">priests in the old church-window, sometime like the</li>
  <li>shaven Hercules in the smirched worm-eaten tapestry,</li>
  <li>where his codpiece seems as massy as his club?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CONRADE</li>
  <li>All this I see; and I see that the fashion wears</li>
  <li>out more apparel than the man. But art not thou</li>
  <li class="number">thyself giddy with the fashion too, that thou hast</li>
  <li>shifted out of thy tale into telling me of the fashion?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BORACHIO</li>
  <li>Not so, neither: but know that I have to-night</li>
  <li>wooed Margaret, the Lady Hero's gentlewoman, by the</li>
  <li>name of Hero: she leans me out at her mistress'</li>
  <li class="number">chamber-window, bids me a thousand times good</li>
  <li>night —  I tell this tale vilely: — I should first</li>
  <li>tell thee how the prince, Claudio and my master,</li>
  <li>planted and placed and possessed by my master Don</li>
  <li>John, saw afar off in the orchard this amiable encounter.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CONRADE</li>
  <li class="number">And thought they Margaret was Hero?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BORACHIO</li>
  <li>Two of them did, the prince and Claudio; but the</li>
  <li>devil my master knew she was Margaret; and partly</li>
  <li>by his oaths, which first possessed them, partly by</li>
  <li>the dark night, which did deceive them, but chiefly</li>
  <li class="number">by my villany, which did confirm any slander that</li>
  <li>Don John had made, away went Claudio enraged; swore</li>
  <li>he would meet her, as he was appointed, next morning</li>
  <li>at the temple, and there, before the whole</li>
  <li>congregation, shame her with what he saw o'er night</li>
  <li class="number">and send her home again without a husband.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">First Watchman</li>
  <li>We charge you, in the prince's name, stand!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Second Watchman</li>
  <li>Call up the right master constable. We have here</li>
  <li>recovered the most dangerous piece of lechery that</li>
  <li>ever was known in the commonwealth.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">First Watchman</li>
  <li class="number">And one Deformed is one of them: I know him; a'</li>
  <li>wears a lock.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CONRADE</li>
  <li>Masters, masters —  </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Second Watchman</li>
  <li>You'll be made bring Deformed forth, I warrant you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CONRADE</li>
  <li>Masters —  </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">First Watchman</li>
  <li class="number">Never speak: we charge you let us obey you to go with us.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BORACHIO</li>
  <li>We are like to prove a goodly commodity, being taken</li>
  <li>up of these men's bills.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CONRADE</li>
  <li>A commodity in question, I warrant you. Come, we'll obey you.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

</section>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE IV.  HERO's apartment.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter HERO, MARGARET, and URSULA</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li>Good Ursula, wake my cousin Beatrice, and desire</li>
  <li>her to rise.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">URSULA</li>
  <li>I will, lady.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li>And bid her come hither.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">URSULA</li>
  <li class="number">Well.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARGARET</li>
  <li>Troth, I think your other rabato were better.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li>No, pray thee, good Meg, I'll wear this.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARGARET</li>
  <li>By my troth, 's not so good; and I warrant your</li>
  <li>cousin will say so.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li class="number">My cousin's a fool, and thou art another: I'll wear</li>
  <li>none but this.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARGARET</li>
  <li>I like the new tire within excellently, if the hair</li>
  <li>were a thought browner; and your gown's a most rare</li>
  <li>fashion, i' faith. I saw the Duchess of Milan's</li>
  <li class="number">gown that they praise so.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li>O, that exceeds, they say.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARGARET</li>
  <li>By my troth, 's but a night-gown in respect of</li>
  <li>yours: cloth o' gold, and cuts, and laced with</li>
  <li>silver, set with pearls, down sleeves, side sleeves,</li>
  <li class="number">and skirts, round underborne with a bluish tinsel:</li>
  <li>but for a fine, quaint, graceful and excellent</li>
  <li>fashion, yours is worth ten on 't.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li>God give me joy to wear it! for my heart is</li>
  <li>exceeding heavy.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARGARET</li>
  <li class="number">'Twill be heavier soon by the weight of a man.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li>Fie upon thee! art not ashamed?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARGARET</li>
  <li>Of what, lady? of speaking honourably? Is not</li>
  <li>marriage honourable in a beggar? Is not your lord</li>
  <li>honourable without marriage? I think you would have</li>
  <li class="number">me say, 'saving your reverence, a husband:' and bad</li>
  <li>thinking do not wrest true speaking, I'll offend</li>
  <li>nobody: is there any harm in 'the heavier for a</li>
  <li>husband'? None, I think, and it be the right husband</li>
  <li>and the right wife; otherwise 'tis light, and not</li>
  <li class="number">heavy: ask my Lady Beatrice else; here she comes.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter BEATRICE</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li>Good morrow, coz.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>Good morrow, sweet Hero.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li>Why how now? do you speak in the sick tune?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>I am out of all other tune, methinks.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARGARET</li>
  <li class="number">Clap's into 'Light o' love;' that goes without a</li>
  <li>burden: do you sing it, and I'll dance it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>Ye light o' love, with your heels! then, if your</li>
  <li>husband have stables enough, you'll see he shall</li>
  <li>lack no barns.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARGARET</li>
  <li class="number">O illegitimate construction! I scorn that with my heels.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>'Tis almost five o'clock, cousin; tis time you were</li>
  <li>ready. By my troth, I am exceeding ill: heigh-ho!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARGARET</li>
  <li>For a hawk, a horse, or a husband?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>For the letter that begins them all, H.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARGARET</li>
  <li class="number">Well, and you be not turned Turk, there's no more</li>
  <li>sailing by the star.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>What means the fool, trow?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARGARET</li>
  <li>Nothing I; but God send every one their heart's desire!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li>These gloves the count sent me; they are an</li>
  <li class="number">excellent perfume.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>I am stuffed, cousin; I cannot smell.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARGARET</li>
  <li>A maid, and stuffed! there's goodly catching of cold.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>O, God help me! God help me! how long have you</li>
  <li>professed apprehension?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARGARET</li>
  <li class="number">Even since you left it. Doth not my wit become me rarely?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>It is not seen enough, you should wear it in your</li>
  <li>cap. By my troth, I am sick.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARGARET</li>
  <li>Get you some of this distilled Carduus Benedictus,</li>
  <li>and lay it to your heart: it is the only thing for a qualm.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li class="number">There thou prickest her with a thistle.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>Benedictus! why Benedictus? you have some moral in</li>
  <li>this Benedictus.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARGARET</li>
  <li>Moral! no, by my troth, I have no moral meaning; I</li>
  <li>meant, plain holy-thistle. You may think perchance</li>
  <li class="number">that I think you are in love: nay, by'r lady, I am</li>
  <li>not such a fool to think what I list, nor I list</li>
  <li>not to think what I can, nor indeed I cannot think,</li>
  <li>if I would think my heart out of thinking, that you</li>
  <li>are in love or that you will be in love or that you</li>
  <li class="number">can be in love. Yet Benedick was such another, and</li>
  <li>now is he become a man: he swore he would never</li>
  <li>marry, and yet now, in despite of his heart, he eats</li>
  <li>his meat without grudging: and how you may be</li>
  <li>converted I know not, but methinks you look with</li>
  <li class="number">your eyes as other women do.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>What pace is this that thy tongue keeps?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARGARET</li>
  <li>Not a false gallop.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Re-enter URSULA</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">URSULA</li>
  <li>Madam, withdraw: the prince, the count, Signior</li>
  <li>Benedick, Don John, and all the gallants of the</li>
  <li class="number">town, are come to fetch you to church.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li>Help to dress me, good coz, good Meg, good Ursula.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

</section>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE V.  Another room in LEONATO'S house.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter LEONATO, with DOGBERRY and VERGES</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>What would you with me, honest neighbour?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>Marry, sir, I would have some confidence with you</li>
  <li>that decerns you nearly.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>Brief, I pray you; for you see it is a busy time with me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li class="number">Marry, this it is, sir.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">VERGES</li>
  <li>Yes, in truth it is, sir.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>What is it, my good friends?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>Goodman Verges, sir, speaks a little off the</li>
  <li>matter: an old man, sir, and his wits are not so</li>
  <li class="number">blunt as, God help, I would desire they were; but,</li>
  <li>in faith, honest as the skin between his brows.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">VERGES</li>
  <li>Yes, I thank God I am as honest as any man living</li>
  <li>that is an old man and no honester than I.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>Comparisons are odorous: palabras, neighbour Verges.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li class="number">Neighbours, you are tedious.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>It pleases your worship to say so, but we are the</li>
  <li>poor duke's officers; but truly, for mine own part,</li>
  <li>if I were as tedious as a king, I could find it in</li>
  <li>my heart to bestow it all of your worship.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li class="number">All thy tediousness on me, ah?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>Yea, an 'twere a thousand pound more than 'tis; for</li>
  <li>I hear as good exclamation on your worship as of any</li>
  <li>man in the city; and though I be but a poor man, I</li>
  <li>am glad to hear it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">VERGES</li>
  <li class="number">And so am I.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>I would fain know what you have to say.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">VERGES</li>
  <li>Marry, sir, our watch to-night, excepting your</li>
  <li>worship's presence, ha' ta'en a couple of as arrant</li>
  <li>knaves as any in Messina.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li class="number">A good old man, sir; he will be talking: as they</li>
  <li>say, when the age is in, the wit is out: God help</li>
  <li>us! it is a world to see. Well said, i' faith,</li>
  <li>neighbour Verges: well, God's a good man; an two men</li>
  <li>ride of a horse, one must ride behind. An honest</li>
  <li class="number">soul, i' faith, sir; by my troth he is, as ever</li>
  <li>broke bread; but God is to be worshipped; all men</li>
  <li>are not alike; alas, good neighbour!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>Indeed, neighbour, he comes too short of you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>Gifts that God gives.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li class="number">I must leave you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>One word, sir: our watch, sir, have indeed</li>
  <li>comprehended two aspicious persons, and we would</li>
  <li>have them this morning examined before your worship.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>Take their examination yourself and bring it me: I</li>
  <li class="number">am now in great haste, as it may appear unto you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>It shall be suffigance.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>Drink some wine ere you go: fare you well.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter a Messenger</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Messenger</li>
  <li>My lord, they stay for you to give your daughter to</li>
  <li>her husband.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li class="number">I'll wait upon them: I am ready.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt LEONATO and Messenger</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>Go, good partner, go, get you to Francis Seacole;</li>
  <li>bid him bring his pen and inkhorn to the gaol: we</li>
  <li>are now to examination these men.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">VERGES</li>
  <li>And we must do it wisely.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li class="number">We will spare for no wit, I warrant you; here's</li>
  <li>that shall drive some of them to a non-come: only</li>
  <li>get the learned writer to set down our</li>
  <li>excommunication and meet me at the gaol.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

</section>

</section>

<section class="act">

<h2>ACT IV</h2>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE I.  A church.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter DON PEDRO, DON JOHN, LEONATO, FRIAR FRANCIS,
CLAUDIO, BENEDICK, HERO, BEATRICE, and Attendants</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>Come, Friar Francis, be brief; only to the plain</li>
  <li>form of marriage, and you shall recount their</li>
  <li>particular duties afterwards.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FRIAR FRANCIS</li>
  <li>You come hither, my lord, to marry this lady.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li class="number">No.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>To be married to her: friar, you come to marry her.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FRIAR FRANCIS</li>
  <li>Lady, you come hither to be married to this count.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li>I do.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FRIAR FRANCIS</li>
  <li>If either of you know any inward impediment why you</li>
  <li class="number">should not be conjoined, charge you, on your souls,</li>
  <li>to utter it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Know you any, Hero?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li>None, my lord.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FRIAR FRANCIS</li>
  <li>Know you any, count?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li class="number">I dare make his answer, none.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>O, what men dare do! what men may do! what men daily</li>
  <li>do, not knowing what they do!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>How now! interjections? Why, then, some be of</li>
  <li>laughing, as, ah, ha, he!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li class="number">Stand thee by, friar. Father, by your leave:</li>
  <li>Will you with free and unconstrained soul</li>
  <li>Give me this maid, your daughter?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>As freely, son, as God did give her me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>And what have I to give you back, whose worth</li>
  <li class="number">May counterpoise this rich and precious gift?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Nothing, unless you render her again.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Sweet prince, you learn me noble thankfulness.</li>
  <li>There, Leonato, take her back again:</li>
  <li>Give not this rotten orange to your friend;</li>
  <li class="number">She's but the sign and semblance of her honour.</li>
  <li>Behold how like a maid she blushes here!</li>
  <li>O, what authority and show of truth</li>
  <li>Can cunning sin cover itself withal!</li>
  <li>Comes not that blood as modest evidence</li>
  <li class="number">To witness simple virtue? Would you not swear,</li>
  <li>All you that see her, that she were a maid,</li>
  <li>By these exterior shows? But she is none:</li>
  <li>She knows the heat of a luxurious bed;</li>
  <li>Her blush is guiltiness, not modesty.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li class="number">What do you mean, my lord?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Not to be married,</li>
  <li>Not to knit my soul to an approved wanton.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>Dear my lord, if you, in your own proof,</li>
  <li>Have vanquish'd the resistance of her youth,</li>
  <li class="number">And made defeat of her virginity —  </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>I know what you would say: if I have known her,</li>
  <li>You will say she did embrace me as a husband,</li>
  <li>And so extenuate the 'forehand sin:</li>
  <li>No, Leonato,</li>
  <li class="number">I never tempted her with word too large;</li>
  <li>But, as a brother to his sister, show'd</li>
  <li>Bashful sincerity and comely love.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li>And seem'd I ever otherwise to you?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Out on thee! Seeming! I will write against it:</li>
  <li class="number">You seem to me as Dian in her orb,</li>
  <li>As chaste as is the bud ere it be blown;</li>
  <li>But you are more intemperate in your blood</li>
  <li>Than Venus, or those pamper'd animals</li>
  <li>That rage in savage sensuality.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li class="number">Is my lord well, that he doth speak so wide?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>Sweet prince, why speak not you?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>What should I speak?</li>
  <li>I stand dishonour'd, that have gone about</li>
  <li>To link my dear friend to a common stale.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li class="number">Are these things spoken, or do I but dream?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li>Sir, they are spoken, and these things are true.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>This looks not like a nuptial.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li>True! O God!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Leonato, stand I here?</li>
  <li class="number">Is this the prince? is this the prince's brother?</li>
  <li>Is this face Hero's? are our eyes our own?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>All this is so: but what of this, my lord?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Let me but move one question to your daughter;</li>
  <li>And, by that fatherly and kindly power</li>
  <li class="number">That you have in her, bid her answer truly.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>I charge thee do so, as thou art my child.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li>O, God defend me! how am I beset!</li>
  <li>What kind of catechising call you this?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>To make you answer truly to your name.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li class="number">Is it not Hero? Who can blot that name</li>
  <li>With any just reproach?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Marry, that can Hero;</li>
  <li>Hero itself can blot out Hero's virtue.</li>
  <li>What man was he talk'd with you yesternight</li>
  <li class="number">Out at your window betwixt twelve and one?</li>
  <li>Now, if you are a maid, answer to this.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li>I talk'd with no man at that hour, my lord.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Why, then are you no maiden. Leonato,</li>
  <li>I am sorry you must hear: upon mine honour,</li>
  <li class="number">Myself, my brother and this grieved count</li>
  <li>Did see her, hear her, at that hour last night</li>
  <li>Talk with a ruffian at her chamber-window</li>
  <li>Who hath indeed, most like a liberal villain,</li>
  <li>Confess'd the vile encounters they have had</li>
  <li class="number">A thousand times in secret.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li>Fie, fie! they are not to be named, my lord,</li>
  <li>Not to be spoke of;</li>
  <li>There is not chastity enough in language</li>
  <li>Without offence to utter them. Thus, pretty lady,</li>
  <li class="number">I am sorry for thy much misgovernment.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>O Hero, what a Hero hadst thou been,</li>
  <li>If half thy outward graces had been placed</li>
  <li>About thy thoughts and counsels of thy heart!</li>
  <li>But fare thee well, most foul, most fair! farewell,</li>
  <li class="number">Thou pure impiety and impious purity!</li>
  <li>For thee I'll lock up all the gates of love,</li>
  <li>And on my eyelids shall conjecture hang,</li>
  <li>To turn all beauty into thoughts of harm,</li>
  <li>And never shall it more be gracious.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li class="number">Hath no man's dagger here a point for me?</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">HERO swoons</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>Why, how now, cousin! wherefore sink you down?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON JOHN</li>
  <li>Come, let us go. These things, come thus to light,</li>
  <li>Smother her spirits up.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt DON PEDRO, DON JOHN, and CLAUDIO</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>How doth the lady?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li class="number">Dead, I think. Help, uncle!</li>
  <li>Hero! why, Hero! Uncle! Signior Benedick! Friar!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>O Fate! take not away thy heavy hand.</li>
  <li>Death is the fairest cover for her shame</li>
  <li>That may be wish'd for.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li class="number">How now, cousin Hero!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FRIAR FRANCIS</li>
  <li>Have comfort, lady.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>Dost thou look up?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FRIAR FRANCIS</li>
  <li>Yea, wherefore should she not?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>Wherefore! Why, doth not every earthly thing</li>
  <li class="number">Cry shame upon her? Could she here deny</li>
  <li>The story that is printed in her blood?</li>
  <li>Do not live, Hero; do not ope thine eyes:</li>
  <li>For, did I think thou wouldst not quickly die,</li>
  <li>Thought I thy spirits were stronger than thy shames,</li>
  <li class="number">Myself would, on the rearward of reproaches,</li>
  <li>Strike at thy life. Grieved I, I had but one?</li>
  <li>Chid I for that at frugal nature's frame?</li>
  <li>O, one too much by thee! Why had I one?</li>
  <li>Why ever wast thou lovely in my eyes?</li>
  <li class="number">Why had I not with charitable hand</li>
  <li>Took up a beggar's issue at my gates,</li>
  <li>Who smirch'd thus and mired with infamy,</li>
  <li>I might have said 'No part of it is mine;</li>
  <li>This shame derives itself from unknown loins'?</li>
  <li class="number">But mine and mine I loved and mine I praised</li>
  <li>And mine that I was proud on, mine so much</li>
  <li>That I myself was to myself not mine,</li>
  <li>Valuing of her —  why, she, O, she is fallen</li>
  <li>Into a pit of ink, that the wide sea</li>
  <li class="number">Hath drops too few to wash her clean again</li>
  <li>And salt too little which may season give</li>
  <li>To her foul-tainted flesh!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Sir, sir, be patient.</li>
  <li>For my part, I am so attired in wonder,</li>
  <li class="number">I know not what to say.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>O, on my soul, my cousin is belied!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Lady, were you her bedfellow last night?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>No, truly not; although, until last night,</li>
  <li>I have this twelvemonth been her bedfellow.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li class="number">Confirm'd, confirm'd! O, that is stronger made</li>
  <li>Which was before barr'd up with ribs of iron!</li>
  <li>Would the two princes lie, and Claudio lie,</li>
  <li>Who loved her so, that, speaking of her foulness,</li>
  <li>Wash'd it with tears? Hence from her! let her die.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FRIAR FRANCIS</li>
  <li class="number">Hear me a little; for I have only been</li>
  <li>Silent so long and given way unto</li>
  <li>This course of fortune</li>
  <li>By noting of the lady. I have mark'd</li>
  <li>A thousand blushing apparitions</li>
  <li class="number">To start into her face, a thousand innocent shames</li>
  <li>In angel whiteness beat away those blushes;</li>
  <li>And in her eye there hath appear'd a fire,</li>
  <li>To burn the errors that these princes hold</li>
  <li>Against her maiden truth. Call me a fool;</li>
  <li class="number">Trust not my reading nor my observations,</li>
  <li>Which with experimental seal doth warrant</li>
  <li>The tenor of my book; trust not my age,</li>
  <li>My reverence, calling, nor divinity,</li>
  <li>If this sweet lady lie not guiltless here</li>
  <li class="number">Under some biting error.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>Friar, it cannot be.</li>
  <li>Thou seest that all the grace that she hath left</li>
  <li>Is that she will not add to her damnation</li>
  <li>A sin of perjury; she not denies it:</li>
  <li class="number">Why seek'st thou then to cover with excuse</li>
  <li>That which appears in proper nakedness?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FRIAR FRANCIS</li>
  <li>Lady, what man is he you are accused of?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li>They know that do accuse me; I know none:</li>
  <li>If I know more of any man alive</li>
  <li class="number">Than that which maiden modesty doth warrant,</li>
  <li>Let all my sins lack mercy! O my father,</li>
  <li>Prove you that any man with me conversed</li>
  <li>At hours unmeet, or that I yesternight</li>
  <li>Maintain'd the change of words with any creature,</li>
  <li class="number">Refuse me, hate me, torture me to death!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FRIAR FRANCIS</li>
  <li>There is some strange misprision in the princes.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Two of them have the very bent of honour;</li>
  <li>And if their wisdoms be misled in this,</li>
  <li>The practise of it lives in John the bastard,</li>
  <li class="number">Whose spirits toil in frame of villanies.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>I know not. If they speak but truth of her,</li>
  <li>These hands shall tear her; if they wrong her honour,</li>
  <li>The proudest of them shall well hear of it.</li>
  <li>Time hath not yet so dried this blood of mine,</li>
  <li class="number">Nor age so eat up my invention,</li>
  <li>Nor fortune made such havoc of my means,</li>
  <li>Nor my bad life reft me so much of friends,</li>
  <li>But they shall find, awaked in such a kind,</li>
  <li>Both strength of limb and policy of mind,</li>
  <li class="number">Ability in means and choice of friends,</li>
  <li>To quit me of them throughly.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FRIAR FRANCIS</li>
  <li>Pause awhile,</li>
  <li>And let my counsel sway you in this case.</li>
  <li>Your daughter here the princes left for dead:</li>
  <li class="number">Let her awhile be secretly kept in,</li>
  <li>And publish it that she is dead indeed;</li>
  <li>Maintain a mourning ostentation</li>
  <li>And on your family's old monument</li>
  <li>Hang mournful epitaphs and do all rites</li>
  <li class="number">That appertain unto a burial.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>What shall become of this? what will this do?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FRIAR FRANCIS</li>
  <li>Marry, this well carried shall on her behalf</li>
  <li>Change slander to remorse; that is some good:</li>
  <li>But not for that dream I on this strange course,</li>
  <li class="number">But on this travail look for greater birth.</li>
  <li>She dying, as it must so be maintain'd,</li>
  <li>Upon the instant that she was accused,</li>
  <li>Shall be lamented, pitied and excused</li>
  <li>Of every hearer: for it so falls out</li>
  <li class="number">That what we have we prize not to the worth</li>
  <li>Whiles we enjoy it, but being lack'd and lost,</li>
  <li>Why, then we rack the value, then we find</li>
  <li>The virtue that possession would not show us</li>
  <li>Whiles it was ours. So will it fare with Claudio:</li>
  <li class="number">When he shall hear she died upon his words,</li>
  <li>The idea of her life shall sweetly creep</li>
  <li>Into his study of imagination,</li>
  <li>And every lovely organ of her life</li>
  <li>Shall come apparell'd in more precious habit,</li>
  <li class="number">More moving-delicate and full of life,</li>
  <li>Into the eye and prospect of his soul,</li>
  <li>Than when she lived indeed; then shall he mourn,</li>
  <li>If ever love had interest in his liver,</li>
  <li>And wish he had not so accused her,</li>
  <li class="number">No, though he thought his accusation true.</li>
  <li>Let this be so, and doubt not but success</li>
  <li>Will fashion the event in better shape</li>
  <li>Than I can lay it down in likelihood.</li>
  <li>But if all aim but this be levell'd false,</li>
  <li class="number">The supposition of the lady's death</li>
  <li>Will quench the wonder of her infamy:</li>
  <li>And if it sort not well, you may conceal her,</li>
  <li>As best befits her wounded reputation,</li>
  <li>In some reclusive and religious life,</li>
  <li class="number">Out of all eyes, tongues, minds and injuries.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Signior Leonato, let the friar advise you:</li>
  <li>And though you know my inwardness and love</li>
  <li>Is very much unto the prince and Claudio,</li>
  <li>Yet, by mine honour, I will deal in this</li>
  <li class="number">As secretly and justly as your soul</li>
  <li>Should with your body.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>Being that I flow in grief,</li>
  <li>The smallest twine may lead me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FRIAR FRANCIS</li>
  <li>'Tis well consented: presently away;</li>
  <li class="number">For to strange sores strangely they strain the cure.</li>
  <li>Come, lady, die to live: this wedding-day</li>
  <li>Perhaps is but prolong'd: have patience and endure.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt all but BENEDICK and BEATRICE</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Lady Beatrice, have you wept all this while?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>Yea, and I will weep a while longer.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li class="number">I will not desire that.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>You have no reason; I do it freely.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Surely I do believe your fair cousin is wronged.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>Ah, how much might the man deserve of me that would right her!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Is there any way to show such friendship?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li class="number">A very even way, but no such friend.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>May a man do it?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>It is a man's office, but not yours.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>I do love nothing in the world so well as you: is</li>
  <li>not that strange?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li class="number">As strange as the thing I know not. It were as</li>
  <li>possible for me to say I loved nothing so well as</li>
  <li>you: but believe me not; and yet I lie not; I</li>
  <li>confess nothing, nor I deny nothing. I am sorry for my cousin.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>By my sword, Beatrice, thou lovest me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li class="number">Do not swear, and eat it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>I will swear by it that you love me; and I will make</li>
  <li>him eat it that says I love not you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>Will you not eat your word?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>With no sauce that can be devised to it. I protest</li>
  <li class="number">I love thee.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>Why, then, God forgive me!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>What offence, sweet Beatrice?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>You have stayed me in a happy hour: I was about to</li>
  <li>protest I loved you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li class="number">And do it with all thy heart.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>I love you with so much of my heart that none is</li>
  <li>left to protest.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Come, bid me do any thing for thee.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>Kill Claudio.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li class="number">Ha! not for the wide world.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>You kill me to deny it. Farewell.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Tarry, sweet Beatrice.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>I am gone, though I am here: there is no love in</li>
  <li>you: nay, I pray you, let me go.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li class="number">Beatrice —  </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>In faith, I will go.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>We'll be friends first.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>You dare easier be friends with me than fight with mine enemy.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Is Claudio thine enemy?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li class="number">Is he not approved in the height a villain, that</li>
  <li>hath slandered, scorned, dishonoured my kinswoman? O</li>
  <li>that I were a man! What, bear her in hand until they</li>
  <li>come to take hands; and then, with public</li>
  <li>accusation, uncovered slander, unmitigated rancour,</li>
  <li class="number"> — O God, that I were a man! I would eat his heart</li>
  <li>in the market-place.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Hear me, Beatrice —  </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>Talk with a man out at a window! A proper saying!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Nay, but, Beatrice —  </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li class="number">Sweet Hero! She is wronged, she is slandered, she is undone.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Beat — </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>Princes and counties! Surely, a princely testimony,</li>
  <li>a goodly count, Count Comfect; a sweet gallant,</li>
  <li>surely! O that I were a man for his sake! or that I</li>
  <li class="number">had any friend would be a man for my sake! But</li>
  <li>manhood is melted into courtesies, valour into</li>
  <li>compliment, and men are only turned into tongue, and</li>
  <li>trim ones too: he is now as valiant as Hercules</li>
  <li>that only tells a lie and swears it. I cannot be a</li>
  <li class="number">man with wishing, therefore I will die a woman with grieving.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Tarry, good Beatrice. By this hand, I love thee.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>Use it for my love some other way than swearing by it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Think you in your soul the Count Claudio hath wronged Hero?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>Yea, as sure as I have a thought or a soul.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li class="number">Enough, I am engaged; I will challenge him. I will</li>
  <li>kiss your hand, and so I leave you. By this hand,</li>
  <li>Claudio shall render me a dear account. As you</li>
  <li>hear of me, so think of me. Go, comfort your</li>
  <li>cousin: I must say she is dead: and so, farewell.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

</section>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE II.  A prison.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter DOGBERRY, VERGES, and Sexton, in gowns; and
the Watch, with CONRADE and BORACHIO</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>Is our whole dissembly appeared?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">VERGES</li>
  <li>O, a stool and a cushion for the sexton.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Sexton</li>
  <li>Which be the malefactors?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>Marry, that am I and my partner.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">VERGES</li>
  <li class="number">Nay, that's certain; we have the exhibition to examine.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Sexton</li>
  <li>But which are the offenders that are to be</li>
  <li>examined? let them come before master constable.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>Yea, marry, let them come before me. What is your</li>
  <li>name, friend?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BORACHIO</li>
  <li class="number">Borachio.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>Pray, write down, Borachio. Yours, sirrah?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CONRADE</li>
  <li>I am a gentleman, sir, and my name is Conrade.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>Write down, master gentleman Conrade. Masters, do</li>
  <li>you serve God?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CONRADE</li>
  <li class="speaker">BORACHIO</li>
  <li class="number">Yea, sir, we hope.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>Write down, that they hope they serve God: and</li>
  <li>write God first; for God defend but God should go</li>
  <li>before such villains! Masters, it is proved already</li>
  <li>that you are little better than false knaves; and it</li>
  <li class="number">will go near to be thought so shortly. How answer</li>
  <li>you for yourselves?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CONRADE</li>
  <li>Marry, sir, we say we are none.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>A marvellous witty fellow, I assure you: but I</li>
  <li>will go about with him. Come you hither, sirrah; a</li>
  <li class="number">word in your ear: sir, I say to you, it is thought</li>
  <li>you are false knaves.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BORACHIO</li>
  <li>Sir, I say to you we are none.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>Well, stand aside. 'Fore God, they are both in a</li>
  <li>tale. Have you writ down, that they are none?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Sexton</li>
  <li class="number">Master constable, you go not the way to examine:</li>
  <li>you must call forth the watch that are their accusers.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>Yea, marry, that's the eftest way. Let the watch</li>
  <li>come forth. Masters, I charge you, in the prince's</li>
  <li>name, accuse these men.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">First Watchman</li>
  <li class="number">This man said, sir, that Don John, the prince's</li>
  <li>brother, was a villain.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>Write down Prince John a villain. Why, this is flat</li>
  <li>perjury, to call a prince's brother villain.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BORACHIO</li>
  <li>Master constable —  </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li class="number">Pray thee, fellow, peace: I do not like thy look,</li>
  <li>I promise thee.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Sexton</li>
  <li>What heard you him say else?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Second Watchman</li>
  <li>Marry, that he had received a thousand ducats of</li>
  <li>Don John for accusing the Lady Hero wrongfully.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li class="number">Flat burglary as ever was committed.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">VERGES</li>
  <li>Yea, by mass, that it is.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Sexton</li>
  <li>What else, fellow?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">First Watchman</li>
  <li>And that Count Claudio did mean, upon his words, to</li>
  <li>disgrace Hero before the whole assembly. and not marry her.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li class="number">O villain! thou wilt be condemned into everlasting</li>
  <li>redemption for this.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Sexton</li>
  <li>What else?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Watchman</li>
  <li>This is all.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Sexton</li>
  <li>And this is more, masters, than you can deny.</li>
  <li class="number">Prince John is this morning secretly stolen away;</li>
  <li>Hero was in this manner accused, in this very manner</li>
  <li>refused, and upon the grief of this suddenly died.</li>
  <li>Master constable, let these men be bound, and</li>
  <li>brought to Leonato's: I will go before and show</li>
  <li class="number">him their examination.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>Come, let them be opinioned.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">VERGES</li>
  <li>Let them be in the hands — </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CONRADE</li>
  <li>Off, coxcomb!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>God's my life, where's the sexton? let him write</li>
  <li class="number">down the prince's officer coxcomb. Come, bind them.</li>
  <li>Thou naughty varlet!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CONRADE</li>
  <li>Away! you are an ass, you are an ass.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>Dost thou not suspect my place? dost thou not</li>
  <li>suspect my years? O that he were here to write me</li>
  <li class="number">down an ass! But, masters, remember that I am an</li>
  <li>ass; though it be not written down, yet forget not</li>
  <li>that I am an ass. No, thou villain, thou art full of</li>
  <li>piety, as shall be proved upon thee by good witness.</li>
  <li>I am a wise fellow, and, which is more, an officer,</li>
  <li class="number">and, which is more, a householder, and, which is</li>
  <li>more, as pretty a piece of flesh as any is in</li>
  <li>Messina, and one that knows the law, go to; and a</li>
  <li>rich fellow enough, go to; and a fellow that hath</li>
  <li>had losses, and one that hath two gowns and every</li>
  <li class="number">thing handsome about him. Bring him away. O that</li>
  <li>I had been writ down an ass!</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

</section>

</section>

<section class="act">

<h2>ACT V</h2>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE I.  Before LEONATO'S house.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter LEONATO and ANTONIO</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTONIO</li>
  <li>If you go on thus, you will kill yourself:</li>
  <li>And 'tis not wisdom thus to second grief</li>
  <li>Against yourself.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>I pray thee, cease thy counsel,</li>
  <li class="number">Which falls into mine ears as profitless</li>
  <li>As water in a sieve: give not me counsel;</li>
  <li>Nor let no comforter delight mine ear</li>
  <li>But such a one whose wrongs do suit with mine.</li>
  <li>Bring me a father that so loved his child,</li>
  <li class="number">Whose joy of her is overwhelm'd like mine,</li>
  <li>And bid him speak of patience;</li>
  <li>Measure his woe the length and breadth of mine</li>
  <li>And let it answer every strain for strain,</li>
  <li>As thus for thus and such a grief for such,</li>
  <li class="number">In every lineament, branch, shape, and form:</li>
  <li>If such a one will smile and stroke his beard,</li>
  <li>Bid sorrow wag, cry 'hem!' when he should groan,</li>
  <li>Patch grief with proverbs, make misfortune drunk</li>
  <li>With candle-wasters; bring him yet to me,</li>
  <li class="number">And I of him will gather patience.</li>
  <li>But there is no such man: for, brother, men</li>
  <li>Can counsel and speak comfort to that grief</li>
  <li>Which they themselves not feel; but, tasting it,</li>
  <li>Their counsel turns to passion, which before</li>
  <li class="number">Would give preceptial medicine to rage,</li>
  <li>Fetter strong madness in a silken thread,</li>
  <li>Charm ache with air and agony with words:</li>
  <li>No, no; 'tis all men's office to speak patience</li>
  <li>To those that wring under the load of sorrow,</li>
  <li class="number">But no man's virtue nor sufficiency</li>
  <li>To be so moral when he shall endure</li>
  <li>The like himself. Therefore give me no counsel:</li>
  <li>My griefs cry louder than advertisement.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTONIO</li>
  <li>Therein do men from children nothing differ.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li class="number">I pray thee, peace. I will be flesh and blood;</li>
  <li>For there was never yet philosopher</li>
  <li>That could endure the toothache patiently,</li>
  <li>However they have writ the style of gods</li>
  <li>And made a push at chance and sufferance.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTONIO</li>
  <li class="number">Yet bend not all the harm upon yourself;</li>
  <li>Make those that do offend you suffer too.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>There thou speak'st reason: nay, I will do so.</li>
  <li>My soul doth tell me Hero is belied;</li>
  <li>And that shall Claudio know; so shall the prince</li>
  <li class="number">And all of them that thus dishonour her.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTONIO</li>
  <li>Here comes the prince and Claudio hastily.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter DON PEDRO and CLAUDIO</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Good den, good den.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Good day to both of you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>Hear you. my lords —  </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li class="number">We have some haste, Leonato.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>Some haste, my lord! well, fare you well, my lord:</li>
  <li>Are you so hasty now? well, all is one.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Nay, do not quarrel with us, good old man.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTONIO</li>
  <li>If he could right himself with quarreling,</li>
  <li class="number">Some of us would lie low.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Who wrongs him?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>Marry, thou dost wrong me; thou dissembler, thou: — </li>
  <li>Nay, never lay thy hand upon thy sword;</li>
  <li>I fear thee not.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li class="number">Marry, beshrew my hand,</li>
  <li>If it should give your age such cause of fear:</li>
  <li>In faith, my hand meant nothing to my sword.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>Tush, tush, man; never fleer and jest at me:</li>
  <li>I speak not like a dotard nor a fool,</li>
  <li class="number">As under privilege of age to brag</li>
  <li>What I have done being young, or what would do</li>
  <li>Were I not old. Know, Claudio, to thy head,</li>
  <li>Thou hast so wrong'd mine innocent child and me</li>
  <li>That I am forced to lay my reverence by</li>
  <li class="number">And, with grey hairs and bruise of many days,</li>
  <li>Do challenge thee to trial of a man.</li>
  <li>I say thou hast belied mine innocent child;</li>
  <li>Thy slander hath gone through and through her heart,</li>
  <li>And she lies buried with her ancestors;</li>
  <li class="number">O, in a tomb where never scandal slept,</li>
  <li>Save this of hers, framed by thy villany!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>My villany?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>Thine, Claudio; thine, I say.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>You say not right, old man.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li class="number">My lord, my lord,</li>
  <li>I'll prove it on his body, if he dare,</li>
  <li>Despite his nice fence and his active practise,</li>
  <li>His May of youth and bloom of lustihood.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Away! I will not have to do with you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li class="number">Canst thou so daff me? Thou hast kill'd my child:</li>
  <li>If thou kill'st me, boy, thou shalt kill a man.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTONIO</li>
  <li>He shall kill two of us, and men indeed:</li>
  <li>But that's no matter; let him kill one first;</li>
  <li>Win me and wear me; let him answer me.</li>
  <li class="number">Come, follow me, boy; come, sir boy, come, follow me:</li>
  <li>Sir boy, I'll whip you from your foining fence;</li>
  <li>Nay, as I am a gentleman, I will.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>Brother —  </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTONIO</li>
  <li>Content yourself. God knows I loved my niece;</li>
  <li class="number">And she is dead, slander'd to death by villains,</li>
  <li>That dare as well answer a man indeed</li>
  <li>As I dare take a serpent by the tongue:</li>
  <li>Boys, apes, braggarts, Jacks, milksops!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>Brother Antony —  </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTONIO</li>
  <li class="number">Hold you content. What, man! I know them, yea,</li>
  <li>And what they weigh, even to the utmost scruple —  </li>
  <li>Scrambling, out-facing, fashion-monging boys,</li>
  <li>That lie and cog and flout, deprave and slander,</li>
  <li>Go anticly, show outward hideousness,</li>
  <li class="number">And speak off half a dozen dangerous words,</li>
  <li>How they might hurt their enemies, if they durst;</li>
  <li>And this is all.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>But, brother Antony —  </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTONIO</li>
  <li>Come, 'tis no matter:</li>
  <li class="number">Do not you meddle; let me deal in this.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Gentlemen both, we will not wake your patience.</li>
  <li>My heart is sorry for your daughter's death:</li>
  <li>But, on my honour, she was charged with nothing</li>
  <li>But what was true and very full of proof.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li class="number">My lord, my lord —  </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>I will not hear you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>No? Come, brother; away! I will be heard.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTONIO</li>
  <li>And shall, or some of us will smart for it.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt LEONATO and ANTONIO</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>See, see; here comes the man we went to seek.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter BENEDICK</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li class="number">Now, signior, what news?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Good day, my lord.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Welcome, signior: you are almost come to part</li>
  <li>almost a fray.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>We had like to have had our two noses snapped off</li>
  <li class="number">with two old men without teeth.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Leonato and his brother. What thinkest thou? Had</li>
  <li>we fought, I doubt we should have been too young for them.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>In a false quarrel there is no true valour. I came</li>
  <li>to seek you both.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li class="number">We have been up and down to seek thee; for we are</li>
  <li>high-proof melancholy and would fain have it beaten</li>
  <li>away. Wilt thou use thy wit?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>It is in my scabbard: shall I draw it?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Dost thou wear thy wit by thy side?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li class="number">Never any did so, though very many have been beside</li>
  <li>their wit. I will bid thee draw, as we do the</li>
  <li>minstrels; draw, to pleasure us.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>As I am an honest man, he looks pale. Art thou</li>
  <li>sick, or angry?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li class="number">What, courage, man! What though care killed a cat,</li>
  <li>thou hast mettle enough in thee to kill care.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Sir, I shall meet your wit in the career, and you</li>
  <li>charge it against me. I pray you choose another subject.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Nay, then, give him another staff: this last was</li>
  <li class="number">broke cross.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>By this light, he changes more and more: I think</li>
  <li>he be angry indeed.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>If he be, he knows how to turn his girdle.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Shall I speak a word in your ear?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li class="number">God bless me from a challenge!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Aside to CLAUDIO  You are a villain; I jest not:</li>
  <li>I will make it good how you dare, with what you</li>
  <li>dare, and when you dare. Do me right, or I will</li>
  <li>protest your cowardice. You have killed a sweet</li>
  <li class="number">lady, and her death shall fall heavy on you. Let me</li>
  <li>hear from you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Well, I will meet you, so I may have good cheer.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>What, a feast, a feast?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>I' faith, I thank him; he hath bid me to a calf's</li>
  <li class="number">head and a capon; the which if I do not carve most</li>
  <li>curiously, say my knife's naught. Shall I not find</li>
  <li>a woodcock too?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Sir, your wit ambles well; it goes easily.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>I'll tell thee how Beatrice praised thy wit the</li>
  <li class="number">other day. I said, thou hadst a fine wit: 'True,'</li>
  <li>said she, 'a fine little one.' 'No,' said I, 'a</li>
  <li>great wit:' 'Right,' says she, 'a great gross one.'</li>
  <li>'Nay,' said I, 'a good wit:' 'Just,' said she, 'it</li>
  <li>hurts nobody.' 'Nay,' said I, 'the gentleman</li>
  <li class="number">is wise:' 'Certain,' said she, 'a wise gentleman.'</li>
  <li>'Nay,' said I, 'he hath the tongues:' 'That I</li>
  <li>believe,' said she, 'for he swore a thing to me on</li>
  <li>Monday night, which he forswore on Tuesday morning;</li>
  <li>there's a double tongue; there's two tongues.' Thus</li>
  <li class="number">did she, an hour together, transshape thy particular</li>
  <li>virtues: yet at last she concluded with a sigh, thou</li>
  <li>wast the properest man in Italy.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>For the which she wept heartily and said she cared</li>
  <li>not.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li class="number">Yea, that she did: but yet, for all that, an if she</li>
  <li>did not hate him deadly, she would love him dearly:</li>
  <li>the old man's daughter told us all.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>All, all; and, moreover, God saw him when he was</li>
  <li>hid in the garden.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li class="number">But when shall we set the savage bull's horns on</li>
  <li>the sensible Benedick's head?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Yea, and text underneath, 'Here dwells Benedick the</li>
  <li>married man'?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Fare you well, boy: you know my mind. I will leave</li>
  <li class="number">you now to your gossip-like humour: you break jests</li>
  <li>as braggarts do their blades, which God be thanked,</li>
  <li>hurt not. My lord, for your many courtesies I thank</li>
  <li>you: I must discontinue your company: your brother</li>
  <li>the bastard is fled from Messina: you have among</li>
  <li class="number">you killed a sweet and innocent lady. For my Lord</li>
  <li>Lackbeard there, he and I shall meet: and, till</li>
  <li>then, peace be with him.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>He is in earnest.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>In most profound earnest; and, I'll warrant you, for</li>
  <li class="number">the love of Beatrice.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>And hath challenged thee.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Most sincerely.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>What a pretty thing man is when he goes in his</li>
  <li>doublet and hose and leaves off his wit!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li class="number">He is then a giant to an ape; but then is an ape a</li>
  <li>doctor to such a man.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>But, soft you, let me be: pluck up, my heart, and</li>
  <li>be sad. Did he not say, my brother was fled?</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter DOGBERRY, VERGES, and the Watch, with CONRADE
and BORACHIO</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>Come you, sir: if justice cannot tame you, she</li>
  <li class="number">shall ne'er weigh more reasons in her balance: nay,</li>
  <li>an you be a cursing hypocrite once, you must be looked to.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>How now? two of my brother's men bound! Borachio</li>
  <li>one!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Hearken after their offence, my lord.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li class="number">Officers, what offence have these men done?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>Marry, sir, they have committed false report;</li>
  <li>moreover, they have spoken untruths; secondarily,</li>
  <li>they are slanders; sixth and lastly, they have</li>
  <li>belied a lady; thirdly, they have verified unjust</li>
  <li class="number">things; and, to conclude, they are lying knaves.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>First, I ask thee what they have done; thirdly, I</li>
  <li>ask thee what's their offence; sixth and lastly, why</li>
  <li>they are committed; and, to conclude, what you lay</li>
  <li>to their charge.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li class="number">Rightly reasoned, and in his own division: and, by</li>
  <li>my troth, there's one meaning well suited.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Who have you offended, masters, that you are thus</li>
  <li>bound to your answer? this learned constable is</li>
  <li>too cunning to be understood: what's your offence?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BORACHIO</li>
  <li class="number">Sweet prince, let me go no farther to mine answer:</li>
  <li>do you hear me, and let this count kill me. I have</li>
  <li>deceived even your very eyes: what your wisdoms</li>
  <li>could not discover, these shallow fools have brought</li>
  <li>to light: who in the night overheard me confessing</li>
  <li class="number">to this man how Don John your brother incensed me</li>
  <li>to slander the Lady Hero, how you were brought into</li>
  <li>the orchard and saw me court Margaret in Hero's</li>
  <li>garments, how you disgraced her, when you should</li>
  <li>marry her: my villany they have upon record; which</li>
  <li class="number">I had rather seal with my death than repeat over</li>
  <li>to my shame. The lady is dead upon mine and my</li>
  <li>master's false accusation; and, briefly, I desire</li>
  <li>nothing but the reward of a villain.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Runs not this speech like iron through your blood?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li class="number">I have drunk poison whiles he utter'd it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>But did my brother set thee on to this?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BORACHIO</li>
  <li>Yea, and paid me richly for the practise of it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>He is composed and framed of treachery:</li>
  <li>And fled he is upon this villany.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li class="number">Sweet Hero! now thy image doth appear</li>
  <li>In the rare semblance that I loved it first.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>Come, bring away the plaintiffs: by this time our</li>
  <li>sexton hath reformed Signior Leonato of the matter:</li>
  <li>and, masters, do not forget to specify, when time</li>
  <li class="number">and place shall serve, that I am an ass.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">VERGES</li>
  <li>Here, here comes master Signior Leonato, and the</li>
  <li>Sexton too.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Re-enter LEONATO and ANTONIO, with the Sexton</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>Which is the villain? let me see his eyes,</li>
  <li>That, when I note another man like him,</li>
  <li class="number">I may avoid him: which of these is he?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BORACHIO</li>
  <li>If you would know your wronger, look on me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>Art thou the slave that with thy breath hast kill'd</li>
  <li>Mine innocent child?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BORACHIO</li>
  <li>Yea, even I alone.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li class="number">No, not so, villain; thou beliest thyself:</li>
  <li>Here stand a pair of honourable men;</li>
  <li>A third is fled, that had a hand in it.</li>
  <li>I thank you, princes, for my daughter's death:</li>
  <li>Record it with your high and worthy deeds:</li>
  <li class="number">'Twas bravely done, if you bethink you of it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>I know not how to pray your patience;</li>
  <li>Yet I must speak. Choose your revenge yourself;</li>
  <li>Impose me to what penance your invention</li>
  <li>Can lay upon my sin: yet sinn'd I not</li>
  <li class="number">But in mistaking.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>By my soul, nor I:</li>
  <li>And yet, to satisfy this good old man,</li>
  <li>I would bend under any heavy weight</li>
  <li>That he'll enjoin me to.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li class="number">I cannot bid you bid my daughter live;</li>
  <li>That were impossible: but, I pray you both,</li>
  <li>Possess the people in Messina here</li>
  <li>How innocent she died; and if your love</li>
  <li>Can labour ought in sad invention,</li>
  <li class="number">Hang her an epitaph upon her tomb</li>
  <li>And sing it to her bones, sing it to-night:</li>
  <li>To-morrow morning come you to my house,</li>
  <li>And since you could not be my son-in-law,</li>
  <li>Be yet my nephew: my brother hath a daughter,</li>
  <li class="number">Almost the copy of my child that's dead,</li>
  <li>And she alone is heir to both of us:</li>
  <li>Give her the right you should have given her cousin,</li>
  <li>And so dies my revenge.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>O noble sir,</li>
  <li class="number">Your over-kindness doth wring tears from me!</li>
  <li>I do embrace your offer; and dispose</li>
  <li>For henceforth of poor Claudio.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>To-morrow then I will expect your coming;</li>
  <li>To-night I take my leave. This naughty man</li>
  <li class="number">Shall face to face be brought to Margaret,</li>
  <li>Who I believe was pack'd in all this wrong,</li>
  <li>Hired to it by your brother.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BORACHIO</li>
  <li>No, by my soul, she was not,</li>
  <li>Nor knew not what she did when she spoke to me,</li>
  <li class="number">But always hath been just and virtuous</li>
  <li>In any thing that I do know by her.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>Moreover, sir, which indeed is not under white and</li>
  <li>black, this plaintiff here, the offender, did call</li>
  <li>me ass: I beseech you, let it be remembered in his</li>
  <li class="number">punishment. And also, the watch heard them talk of</li>
  <li>one Deformed: they say be wears a key in his ear and</li>
  <li>a lock hanging by it, and borrows money in God's</li>
  <li>name, the which he hath used so long and never paid</li>
  <li>that now men grow hard-hearted and will lend nothing</li>
  <li class="number">for God's sake: pray you, examine him upon that point.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>I thank thee for thy care and honest pains.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>Your worship speaks like a most thankful and</li>
  <li>reverend youth; and I praise God for you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>There's for thy pains.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li class="number">God save the foundation!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>Go, I discharge thee of thy prisoner, and I thank thee.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DOGBERRY</li>
  <li>I leave an arrant knave with your worship; which I</li>
  <li>beseech your worship to correct yourself, for the</li>
  <li>example of others. God keep your worship! I wish</li>
  <li class="number">your worship well; God restore you to health! I</li>
  <li>humbly give you leave to depart; and if a merry</li>
  <li>meeting may be wished, God prohibit it! Come, neighbour.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt DOGBERRY and VERGES</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>Until to-morrow morning, lords, farewell.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTONIO</li>
  <li>Farewell, my lords: we look for you to-morrow.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li class="number">We will not fail.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>To-night I'll mourn with Hero.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>To the Watch  Bring you these fellows on. We'll</li>
  <li>talk with Margaret,</li>
  <li>How her acquaintance grew with this lewd fellow.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt, severally</div>

</section>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE II.  LEONATO'S garden.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter BENEDICK and MARGARET, meeting</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Pray thee, sweet Mistress Margaret, deserve well at</li>
  <li>my hands by helping me to the speech of Beatrice.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARGARET</li>
  <li>Will you then write me a sonnet in praise of my beauty?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>In so high a style, Margaret, that no man living</li>
  <li class="number">shall come over it; for, in most comely truth, thou</li>
  <li>deservest it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARGARET</li>
  <li>To have no man come over me! why, shall I always</li>
  <li>keep below stairs?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Thy wit is as quick as the greyhound's mouth; it catches.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARGARET</li>
  <li class="number">And yours as blunt as the fencer's foils, which hit,</li>
  <li>but hurt not.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>A most manly wit, Margaret; it will not hurt a</li>
  <li>woman: and so, I pray thee, call Beatrice: I give</li>
  <li>thee the bucklers.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARGARET</li>
  <li class="number">Give us the swords; we have bucklers of our own.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>If you use them, Margaret, you must put in the</li>
  <li>pikes with a vice; and they are dangerous weapons for maids.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MARGARET</li>
  <li>Well, I will call Beatrice to you, who I think hath legs.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>And therefore will come.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Exit MARGARET</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Sings</li>
  <li class="number">The god of love,</li>
  <li>That sits above,</li>
  <li>And knows me, and knows me,</li>
  <li>How pitiful I deserve —  </li>
  <li>I mean in singing; but in loving, Leander the good</li>
  <li class="number">swimmer, Troilus the first employer of panders, and</li>
  <li>a whole bookful of these quondam carpet-mangers,</li>
  <li>whose names yet run smoothly in the even road of a</li>
  <li>blank verse, why, they were never so truly turned</li>
  <li>over and over as my poor self in love. Marry, I</li>
  <li class="number">cannot show it in rhyme; I have tried: I can find</li>
  <li>out no rhyme to 'lady' but 'baby,' an innocent</li>
  <li>rhyme; for 'scorn,' 'horn,' a hard rhyme; for,</li>
  <li>'school,' 'fool,' a babbling rhyme; very ominous</li>
  <li>endings: no, I was not born under a rhyming planet,</li>
  <li class="number">nor I cannot woo in festival terms.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Enter BEATRICE</li>
  <li>Sweet Beatrice, wouldst thou come when I called thee?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>Yea, signior, and depart when you bid me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>O, stay but till then!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>'Then' is spoken; fare you well now: and yet, ere</li>
  <li class="number">I go, let me go with that I came; which is, with</li>
  <li>knowing what hath passed between you and Claudio.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Only foul words; and thereupon I will kiss thee.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>Foul words is but foul wind, and foul wind is but</li>
  <li>foul breath, and foul breath is noisome; therefore I</li>
  <li class="number">will depart unkissed.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Thou hast frighted the word out of his right sense,</li>
  <li>so forcible is thy wit. But I must tell thee</li>
  <li>plainly, Claudio undergoes my challenge; and either</li>
  <li>I must shortly hear from him, or I will subscribe</li>
  <li class="number">him a coward. And, I pray thee now, tell me for</li>
  <li>which of my bad parts didst thou first fall in love with me?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>For them all together; which maintained so politic</li>
  <li>a state of evil that they will not admit any good</li>
  <li>part to intermingle with them. But for which of my</li>
  <li class="number">good parts did you first suffer love for me?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Suffer love! a good epithet! I do suffer love</li>
  <li>indeed, for I love thee against my will.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>In spite of your heart, I think; alas, poor heart!</li>
  <li>If you spite it for my sake, I will spite it for</li>
  <li class="number">yours; for I will never love that which my friend hates.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>It appears not in this confession: there's not one</li>
  <li>wise man among twenty that will praise himself.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>An old, an old instance, Beatrice, that lived in</li>
  <li class="number">the lime of good neighbours. If a man do not erect</li>
  <li>in this age his own tomb ere he dies, he shall live</li>
  <li>no longer in monument than the bell rings and the</li>
  <li>widow weeps.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>And how long is that, think you?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li class="number">Question: why, an hour in clamour and a quarter in</li>
  <li>rheum: therefore is it most expedient for the</li>
  <li>wise, if Don Worm, his conscience, find no</li>
  <li>impediment to the contrary, to be the trumpet of his</li>
  <li>own virtues, as I am to myself. So much for</li>
  <li class="number">praising myself, who, I myself will bear witness, is</li>
  <li>praiseworthy: and now tell me, how doth your cousin?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>Very ill.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>And how do you?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>Very ill too.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li class="number">Serve God, love me and mend. There will I leave</li>
  <li>you too, for here comes one in haste.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter URSULA</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">URSULA</li>
  <li>Madam, you must come to your uncle. Yonder's old</li>
  <li>coil at home: it is proved my Lady Hero hath been</li>
  <li>falsely accused, the prince and Claudio mightily</li>
  <li class="number">abused; and Don John is the author of all, who is</li>
  <li>fed and gone. Will you come presently?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>Will you go hear this news, signior?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>I will live in thy heart, die in thy lap, and be</li>
  <li>buried in thy eyes; and moreover I will go with</li>
  <li class="number">thee to thy uncle's.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

</section>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE III.  A church.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter DON PEDRO, CLAUDIO, and three or four
with tapers</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Is this the monument of Leonato?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Lord</li>
  <li>It is, my lord.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Reading out of a scroll</li>
  <li>Done to death by slanderous tongues</li>
  <li class="number">Was the Hero that here lies:</li>
  <li>Death, in guerdon of her wrongs,</li>
  <li>Gives her fame which never dies.</li>
  <li>So the life that died with shame</li>
  <li>Lives in death with glorious fame.</li>
  <li class="number">Hang thou there upon the tomb,</li>
  <li>Praising her when I am dumb.</li>
  <li>Now, music, sound, and sing your solemn hymn.</li>
  <li class="subhead">SONG.</li>
  <li>Pardon, goddess of the night,</li>
  <li>Those that slew thy virgin knight;</li>
  <li class="number">For the which, with songs of woe,</li>
  <li>Round about her tomb they go.</li>
  <li>Midnight, assist our moan;</li>
  <li>Help us to sigh and groan,</li>
  <li>Heavily, heavily:</li>
  <li class="number">Graves, yawn and yield your dead,</li>
  <li>Till death be uttered,</li>
  <li>Heavily, heavily.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Now, unto thy bones good night!</li>
  <li>Yearly will I do this rite.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li class="number">Good morrow, masters; put your torches out:</li>
  <li>The wolves have prey'd; and look, the gentle day,</li>
  <li>Before the wheels of Phoebus, round about</li>
  <li>Dapples the drowsy east with spots of grey.</li>
  <li>Thanks to you all, and leave us: fare you well.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li class="number">Good morrow, masters: each his several way.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Come, let us hence, and put on other weeds;</li>
  <li>And then to Leonato's we will go.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>And Hymen now with luckier issue speed's</li>
  <li>Than this for whom we render'd up this woe.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

</section>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE IV.  A room in LEONATO'S house.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter LEONATO, ANTONIO, BENEDICK, BEATRICE,
MARGARET, URSULA, FRIAR FRANCIS, and HERO</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FRIAR FRANCIS</li>
  <li>Did I not tell you she was innocent?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>So are the prince and Claudio, who accused her</li>
  <li>Upon the error that you heard debated:</li>
  <li>But Margaret was in some fault for this,</li>
  <li class="number">Although against her will, as it appears</li>
  <li>In the true course of all the question.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTONIO</li>
  <li>Well, I am glad that all things sort so well.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>And so am I, being else by faith enforced</li>
  <li>To call young Claudio to a reckoning for it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li class="number">Well, daughter, and you gentle-women all,</li>
  <li>Withdraw into a chamber by yourselves,</li>
  <li>And when I send for you, come hither mask'd.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Exeunt Ladies</li>
  <li>The prince and Claudio promised by this hour</li>
  <li>To visit me. You know your office, brother:</li>
  <li class="number">You must be father to your brother's daughter</li>
  <li>And give her to young Claudio.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTONIO</li>
  <li>Which I will do with confirm'd countenance.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Friar, I must entreat your pains, I think.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FRIAR FRANCIS</li>
  <li>To do what, signior?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li class="number">To bind me, or undo me; one of them.</li>
  <li>Signior Leonato, truth it is, good signior,</li>
  <li>Your niece regards me with an eye of favour.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>That eye my daughter lent her: 'tis most true.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>And I do with an eye of love requite her.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li class="number">The sight whereof I think you had from me,</li>
  <li>From Claudio and the prince: but what's your will?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Your answer, sir, is enigmatical:</li>
  <li>But, for my will, my will is your good will</li>
  <li>May stand with ours, this day to be conjoin'd</li>
  <li class="number">In the state of honourable marriage:</li>
  <li>In which, good friar, I shall desire your help.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>My heart is with your liking.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FRIAR FRANCIS</li>
  <li>And my help.</li>
  <li>Here comes the prince and Claudio.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter DON PEDRO and CLAUDIO, and two or
three others</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li class="number">Good morrow to this fair assembly.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>Good morrow, prince; good morrow, Claudio:</li>
  <li>We here attend you. Are you yet determined</li>
  <li>To-day to marry with my brother's daughter?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>I'll hold my mind, were she an Ethiope.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li class="number">Call her forth, brother; here's the friar ready.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit ANTONIO</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>Good morrow, Benedick. Why, what's the matter,</li>
  <li>That you have such a February face,</li>
  <li>So full of frost, of storm and cloudiness?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>I think he thinks upon the savage bull.</li>
  <li class="number">Tush, fear not, man; we'll tip thy horns with gold</li>
  <li>And all Europa shall rejoice at thee,</li>
  <li>As once Europa did at lusty Jove,</li>
  <li>When he would play the noble beast in love.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Bull Jove, sir, had an amiable low;</li>
  <li class="number">And some such strange bull leap'd your father's cow,</li>
  <li>And got a calf in that same noble feat</li>
  <li>Much like to you, for you have just his bleat.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>For this I owe you: here comes other reckonings.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Re-enter ANTONIO, with the Ladies masked</li>
  <li>Which is the lady I must seize upon?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTONIO</li>
  <li class="number">This same is she, and I do give you her.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Why, then she's mine. Sweet, let me see your face.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>No, that you shall not, till you take her hand</li>
  <li>Before this friar and swear to marry her.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Give me your hand::before this holy friar,</li>
  <li class="number">I am your husband, if you like of me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li>And when I lived, I was your other wife:</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Unmasking</li>
  <li>And when you loved, you were my other husband.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>Another Hero!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li>Nothing certainer:</li>
  <li class="number">One Hero died defiled, but I do live,</li>
  <li>And surely as I live, I am a maid.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>The former Hero! Hero that is dead!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>She died, my lord, but whiles her slander lived.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FRIAR FRANCIS</li>
  <li>All this amazement can I qualify:</li>
  <li class="number">When after that the holy rites are ended,</li>
  <li>I'll tell you largely of fair Hero's death:</li>
  <li>Meantime let wonder seem familiar,</li>
  <li>And to the chapel let us presently.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Soft and fair, friar. Which is Beatrice?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li class="number">Unmasking  I answer to that name. What is your will?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Do not you love me?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>Why, no; no more than reason.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Why, then your uncle and the prince and Claudio</li>
  <li>Have been deceived; they swore you did.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li class="number">Do not you love me?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Troth, no; no more than reason.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>Why, then my cousin Margaret and Ursula</li>
  <li>Are much deceived; for they did swear you did.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>They swore that you were almost sick for me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li class="number">They swore that you were well-nigh dead for me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>'Tis no such matter. Then you do not love me?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>No, truly, but in friendly recompense.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>Come, cousin, I am sure you love the gentleman.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>And I'll be sworn upon't that he loves her;</li>
  <li class="number">For here's a paper written in his hand,</li>
  <li>A halting sonnet of his own pure brain,</li>
  <li>Fashion'd to Beatrice.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERO</li>
  <li>And here's another</li>
  <li>Writ in my cousin's hand, stolen from her pocket,</li>
  <li class="number">Containing her affection unto Benedick.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>A miracle! here's our own hands against our hearts.</li>
  <li>Come, I will have thee; but, by this light, I take</li>
  <li>thee for pity.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BEATRICE</li>
  <li>I would not deny you; but, by this good day, I yield</li>
  <li class="number">upon great persuasion; and partly to save your life,</li>
  <li>for I was told you were in a consumption.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Peace! I will stop your mouth.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Kissing her</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DON PEDRO</li>
  <li>How dost thou, Benedick, the married man?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>I'll tell thee what, prince; a college of</li>
  <li class="number">wit-crackers cannot flout me out of my humour. Dost</li>
  <li>thou think I  care for a satire or an epigram? No:</li>
  <li>if a man will be beaten with brains, a' shall wear</li>
  <li>nothing handsome about him. In brief, since I do</li>
  <li>purpose to marry, I will think nothing to any</li>
  <li class="number">purpose that the world can say against it; and</li>
  <li>therefore never flout at me for what I have said</li>
  <li>against it; for man is a giddy thing, and this is my</li>
  <li>conclusion. For thy part, Claudio, I did think to</li>
  <li>have beaten thee, but in that thou art like to be my</li>
  <li class="number">kinsman, live unbruised and love my cousin.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">CLAUDIO</li>
  <li>I had well hoped thou wouldst have denied Beatrice,</li>
  <li>that I might have cudgelled thee out of thy single</li>
  <li>life, to make thee a double-dealer; which, out of</li>
  <li>question, thou wilt be, if my cousin do not look</li>
  <li class="number">exceedingly narrowly to thee.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li>Come, come, we are friends: let's have a dance ere</li>
  <li>we are married, that we may lighten our own hearts</li>
  <li>and our wives' heels.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LEONATO</li>
  <li>We'll have dancing afterward.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li class="number">First, of my word; therefore play, music. Prince,</li>
  <li>thou art sad; get thee a wife, get thee a wife:</li>
  <li>there is no staff more reverend than one tipped with horn.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter a Messenger</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Messenger</li>
  <li>My lord, your brother John is ta'en in flight,</li>
  <li>And brought with armed men back to Messina.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BENEDICK</li>
  <li class="number">Think not on him till to-morrow:</li>
  <li>I'll devise thee brave punishments for him.</li>
  <li>Strike up, pipers.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Dance</div>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

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